


Rising Storm

by Somewhat_Inspired



Category: Jessie (TV), Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Action/Adventure, Character Death, Demigods, Fairly Light-hearted, Gen, Greek Gods and Goddesses - Freeform, I'm Bad At Tagging, Monsters, Questy stuff, Rewrite, Some Humor, Some grief, Violence, most of the time anyway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 01:48:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6780322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somewhat_Inspired/pseuds/Somewhat_Inspired
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shortly after their parents' deaths, the Ross kids find themselves on their way to go live with their aunt. However, when a monster attacks the subway, they wind up at Camp Half-Blood, where they find out they're demigods. With this crazy new lifestyle comes new allies, enemies, and even an eerie prophecy to top it all off. Oh, and the world is in danger, too. Can these city kids calm the rising storm?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, guys! This is the rewritten version of my old Rising Storm story! This was originally posted on my Fanfiction.net account, and since I got this account, I figured I might as well post it here, too. Please enjoy, but also please keep in mind that I haven't read the actual Percy Jackson series in forever and so most of the info I'm using is coming from the Camp Half-Blood wiki. So, expect some mistakes canon-wise. (Although, this is fanfiction, so I guess canon is a bit of a moot point here, lol.) Thank you!  
> Disclaimer: I do not own Jessie or Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Why else would this be called fanfiction?

It was thunder storming that night. Of course, it had been thunder storming every night for the past few weeks. During the day, the rain would cease, only to pick up again once the sun disappeared. The roads were unsafe, choked with all the excess water and runoff that the sun failed to evaporate. Tonight, it seemed as if there was more water than road.

The couple in the car was silent. The wife, a beautiful blonde, sat in the passenger seat watching the countless tiny droplets hit and splash against the vehicle window while her husband drove with his eyes intently on the path in front of them. For several minutes, there were no sounds minus those of their breathing and of the windshield wipers frantically trying to wick away the constant downpour of moisture nearly blocking their line of sight. Finally, after several more moments, the wife sighed.

“Morgan,” she started, and then paused before continuing, “We should tell them.”

Her husband, who was normally so animated, didn’t give her his usual negative response to the familiar statement. Instead, the brunette was silent for a few seconds, mulling it over in his head. Christina could see the gears turning in his creative mind, imagining every possible outcome of their kids’ reactions. She knew Morgan was a very observant person, more so than many gave him credit for. To put it simply, he knew people, and how their minds worked. It was what made him such a talented and successful movie director.

After about half a minute, he finally spoke. “Do you really think they’re ready? I mean, their lives will be in danger after they know they’re-“

“As if they aren’t in danger already? Morgan, keeping this from them any longer will only make matters worse for them down the road! Our kids _need_ to hear the truth!”

“Our kids…right…” the man muttered in response. His voice had an uncharacteristically humorless quality to it.

“Morgan…”

“You’re right,” he finally said. “They deserve to know. We’ll tell them once we get back.” Outside, thunder boomed ominously. Morgan chuckled before adding, “Although, the whole ‘getting back’ part might take a while.”

Morgan’s light humor was contagious, and Christina smiled as well before returning to gazing out at the water-warped scenery outside the window. Things were looking up. The kids would know, and they would train, and they would be safe. Everything would be okay.

Then suddenly, the car began to skid after Morgan hit the brakes without warning.

“Morgan?!” she shouted fearfully.

“Th-There was something big in the road!”

Through the window, Christina saw it, too – and then saw the large ditch they were headed towards. “ _MORGAN! WATCH OU-_ “

But it was too late.

* * *

 

One month after the funeral (and two weeks after the court session to decide who had custody of them), the Ross kids found themselves on a subway headed to the airport. Jessie sat with them offering silent support as their last few minutes together slowly ticked away. Luke fidgeted, Zuri hugged Jessie, Emma checked her bag for the twelfth time, and Ravi simply sat staring out the window at the blurred scenery speeding by. The only people in the car besides them were three other adults (two men and a woman) engaged in a friendly conversation.

The subway stopped, and two more women got on. Once the train was moving again, Jessie asked, “Do ya’ll need anything?”

“No, Jessie,” Emma sighed.

“We have everything, thank you,” Ravi added.

“Alright then,” the nanny paused before hesitantly asking, “Are you guys really okay with this? I mean, you’re going to a whole new house and school all the way in California, and-“

“We know, Jessie,” Emma interrupted, shooting her (ex)caretaker a quick scowl before continuing to mess around with her maroon purse. “You don’t have to keep reminding us.”

Jessie sighed, “Right. Sorry.” Several more minutes (and two stops) later, the nanny added, “You do know I care about all of you, right? That I would never want any of you to be unhappy?”

Emma relaxed, sighed, and responded, “We know.”

“We love you, too, Jessie,” Zuri hugged the older woman tighter.

“Just…worry about your own problems.” Luke spoke for the first time the entire day. He finally looked up from his lap and twiddling thumbs. “Your stop is next, right?”

“Yeah,” Jessie sighed. “There’s this little café that I heard is hiring. I might be able to get a job there,” She gently ruffled Zuri’s hair as she added, “It won’t be near as fun as looking after all of you, though.”

The little girl giggled, but then sobered up. “We’ll miss you…”

The speaker of the subway came to life, static filling most of its message as it garbled out some sort of gibberish about a location. As Zuri released her hold, Jessie grabbed her purse and suitcase before saying, “Well, I guess that’s my stop. As soon as I have enough money, I’ll visit you guys at your aunt’s house. That way I can see how you all are settling in. If you need anything, call me on your cell phone. If you need to talk to anyone, call me. And if there’s some jerk whose butt needs to be kicked-“

“Let me guess…call you,” Zuri grinned. “Or I can just beat them up in your place.”

Jessie hugged her again. “Good girl – just as long as you try to talk things out first.” The sub began to screech to a halt, and Jessie quickly released the seven-year-old and made sure to give all the other Ross kids one, too. “Now remember, I’m always available to talk if you need me. Your aunt loves you, too.” The doors slid open, and passengers began to file out. After saying goodbye, Jessie stood up with her bags and walked off. She paused a few feet away, turned back around, and waved to the four children that she had come to love and care for in just the couple months that she had worked for their parents. The kids waved back. The doors closed, the train moved out of the station, and just like that the nanny that had become like an older sister to them (and their old life) was left behind.

One by one, the kids settled back into their previous positions. Emma wiped a small tear away before returning to rummaging through her purse. There wasn’t much else to do – it was either find something to distract herself or think about her parents’ death. While it had been a while ago, the pain was still fresh, and the young blonde didn’t want to face it yet. The fact that she was being forced to leave the home she always knew for some house in a whole different state to live with an aunt she barely knew was not really helping. Eventually, she grew tired of looking through her bag and instead settled upon a _Leopard Beat_ magazine rolled up inside it. She quietly slid it out, unfolded it, and began to read.

After a few moments, her youngest brother broke the silence. “Luke..?”

“Hm? What?”

“…What is Aunt Carrie like?”

Oh, right. Emma suddenly realized that Ravi had never even met their mother’s older sister. With all the craziness and... _custody arrangements_ occurring over the last several weeks, she, Luke and Zuri had neglected to fill him in on everything they knew about the woman they were being sent to live with. Which, granted, wasn’t much (after all, they themselves had only met her twice, despite how close she and their mother had claimed to be), but any information probably would have been welcome. Emma quickly shoved the small twinge of guilt she felt in her heart aside as she listened to Luke respond, “Uh, she’s…okay, I guess.”

“We’ll be fine, Ravi. You’ll like her.” Emma decided to add from behind her magazine, reassuring the ten-year-old.

Zuri chimed in, “Yeah, we like her! And we hardly know her!”

Ravi smiled a little bit and thanked them before returning to watching the outside scenery speed by. The four siblings once again sat in silence, unwilling to speak anymore about their soon-to-be home and guardian. Or talk in general, for that matter. Much had happened in the past several days, and knowing they would still have to make a long plane trip soon was not helping to alleviate the fatigue they all felt.

What seemed like an hour (even though it was really only about fifteen minutes) passed before Ravi shifted again and turned towards his older brother. “Luke?”

“What now?”

“Do you ever get the feeling that something bad might happen to you? Like a powerful sense of foreboding?”

The twelve-year-old looked at him strangely for a second before responding, “Dude, you worry _way_ too much. It’s a _subway._ What could happen?”

Suddenly the car lurched forward, and Luke was thrown into Ravi as the train came screeching to a halt. Emma screamed as her magazine and purse flew out of her hands while Zuri gripped the handrails like they were her lifeline. After a few seconds, the horrible sound of metal grinding against metal ceased, and the subway came to a complete stop. As soon as she was sure her heart wasn’t going to burst out of her chest (or her lunch going to make a grand reappearance), Emma shakily stood up. Her younger siblings followed her example (Luke had to get off of Ravi first though) and began looking around. Outside, there was nothing to be seen except the grey walls of the tunnel they were in – the subway hadn’t yet made it to the next station.

“What happened? Why did we stop?” One of the passengers on the other side of the car, a young woman who had fallen in the chaos, wondered aloud.

“Don’t know,” replied a middle-aged man as he helped her up, “but it can’t be good.” He glanced in the Ross kids’ direction. “Hey, are you kids alright? Got a real good scare there, didn’t we?”

“We’re fine,” Emma replied. “Just a teensy bit startled.” She bent down to pick up her purse while her siblings gathered up their possessions, all of which were now strewn about on the floor. She was just getting settled in her seat again when the speaker came on, but only sputtered static. _That’s odd_ …she thought. Suddenly, all the lights installed on the sides of the tunnel blinked out while the ones inside the car flickered. Zuri yelped from beside her, making Emma jump.

“There’s something out there!” The little girl exclaimed. Across from her, Luke and Ravi looked up as well and started. Confused, the blond twisted around, only to see some sort of soot-colored fog outside the window. Which normally wouldn’t have been that frightening…except part of it then began to shift and morph into a tall, cloaked (and faceless, to her horror) figure that stared back at her. Emma screamed, practically leaping from her seat. The eerily silent creature outside simply remained in place before floating upwards and out of their line of sight. Emma continued to scream until she felt someone shaking her out of her stupor.

“Emma!” she heard Luke saying. “It’s gone! Snap out of it!”

Gasping, the thirteen-year-old relaxed. “What _is_ that thing?!” She yelled over the sounds of the other passengers’ panicked queries (probably of the same question).

“No clue. But it didn’t look friendly.”

“Ya _think?!_ ” snapped Zuri.

Over the insanity, Ravi suddenly raised his voice. “Wait! Listen!”

Just then, as if someone had flipped a switch, everyone in the car fell silent. There was an ominous silence before another louder creaking sound came from the ceiling. Without a warning, one of the windows shattered when a long, skeletal arm burst through it and swiped at them. Emma and Ravi both screamed and ducked to avoid the creature’s sharp claws while Luke and Zuri both crouched next to them.

“Why is it doing this?!” Emma screeched.

“Does it really matter if it’s trying to slice us into pieces?!” Zuri yelled back over the din of the other passengers’ shouts and cries. “Let’s get out of here!”

“And go where?! In case you haven’t noticed, we’re stuck in the middle of a dark tunnel with _that_ thing!” Luke exclaimed.

“Yes, and even if we do escape the car, there will be nothing between us and that creature!” Ravi added. “Do you really want to take that chance?”

The window on the opposite side shattered, and the young girl responded, “Do _you_ really want to get shish-kebobbed? If so, be my guest! _I’m_ getting out!”

Before any of her siblings could stop her, the young girl began crawling across the floor towards the emergency exit, expertly dodging any low-slashing claws. Luke hesitated a second before following her. Emma moaned in fear before snatching up her purse and scurrying after them. Ravi watched them, dumbfounded, for a second, then muttered something under his breath about stupidity as he crawled after his siblings. Over by the small red door, the four Ross kids gathered. Zuri tried the latch, but it was being stubborn and wouldn’t open. Luke joined her, and with a bit of might and elbow grease the emergency exit popped open. In single file, all four kids slid out of the subway and into the tunnel, practically hugging the walls (since there were only a couple feet of space between the car and the wall) as they hurriedly shuffled away. From outside, they finally had a full view of the monster, which floated with its back to them as if suspended on top of the car. It had still not uttered a sound, even with all the screaming and carrying on from the people who remained inside the subway. Its long, transparent arms (which now, the Ross kids realized, were smoky apparitions rather than actual arms) had ceased randomly slashing at the interior of the train and were now feeling around, as if searching. Quietly, the four children attempted to sneak away.

“If we hurry, we can reach the next station and get out of here before that thing notices us,” Emma whispered once they were just past the front of the sub. Before the others could agree, the creature’s head twisted around like an owl’s. Upon spotting them, it retracted its tendrils and shot after them. Screaming, the Rosses fled towards the end of the tunnel.

The thing was fast. It was just a few feet behind them as the kids burst into the next station. The place was empty, like it had been evacuated or something. Either way, they didn’t have time to worry about it now – they had bigger issues at the moment. Hurrying up the stairs leading above ground (and past a tv mounted in the station that had the rising crime rates from the last month listed on it), the foursome ran outside and into the pouring rain with the monster hot on their heels.

As they were fleeing, Ravi panted, “I do not get it. Why is it so adamant on catching us?”

“Do you want to stop and ask it, or keep running?” Zuri snapped back.

After several moments, the figure had almost caught up to them. Not used to such fierce physical activity, the children were exhausted. As they ran up the side of a grassy hill, they spotted something – a stone arch that had ‘Camp Half-Blood’ engraved on it, with several buildings and statues behind it.

“Look! We can lose that thing in there!” Luke shouted.

“Great!” Emma panted. “Let’s go!”

The four children steeled themselves before running the next several yards to the camp. However, just outside of it, the monster suddenly got close enough to grab a part of Zuri’s shirt. The little girl screamed, and Emma stopped. Using her purse, she bopped the creature on the head, and it let go (but not without swiping at Emma, who ended up squeaking in fear and throwing her ‘weapon’ at it to keep it at bay). In the short couple seconds in which their assaulter was distracted, Emma pulled Zuri along as she and her brothers fled into the camp. Looking back, the blond started when she realized the monster wasn’t following. It just… _stood there_ and stared after them before vanishing into thin air. Sighing in relief, Ravi sat down while Luke and Zuri whooped in victory, all tiredness forgotten. Emma, on the other hand, only groaned – that had been her favorite purse that the creature had made off with. However, her thoughts were interrupted when the sound of someone clearing their throat came from behind her. Surprised, she and her siblings turned around, only to be met with the sight of several kids in orange shirts staring (with expressions ranging from shocked to indifferent, as if this sort of thing happened all the time) at them while directly in front of them was a middle-aged man who from the waist down was…a white horse?

The two groups sized each other up for a few moments before Emma, in an attempt to clear the awkwardness in the air, said, “Uhhh…hi?”      


	2. Chapter 2

Two hours (and a _long_ explanation) later, the Ross kids found themselves sitting at a table in the main cabin. Across from them was the horse-man, a bored looking brunette male, and a handful of teens that served as cabin counselors. After several minutes of listening to all of the campers speak, Luke crossed his arms leaned back in his chair.

            “So, let me get this straight,” he recounted. “The Greek gods are real, and this place, called Camp Half-Blood, is where their kids, called demigods, go to train. The thing that attacked us was a monster that probably came from the Underworld, which is also real. How am I doing?”

            “Excellent,” the equine male, Chiron, assured.

            Luke continued, “And since only _demigods_ can get through that invisible shield that you said covers the camp, then that means that _we’re_ …”

            “Demigods. There is no other explanation.” Chiron concluded.

            “Okaaay…sure.”

            One of the camp counselors, Travis, raised an eyebrow. “You’re not freaked out by any of this?”

            Luke shrugged. “Nope.”

            “We have already seen enough proof to believe you are telling the truth,” Ravi nodded.

            Zuri added from her spot next to the ten-year-old, “Yeah, in the form of some freaky cloak guy!”

            “At this point, we wouldn’t be surprised if some sort of goat-man walked in!” Emma joked.

            As if on cue, the door swung open, revealing a shaggy looking young guy in an orange t-shirt. He had a nervous expression, a scraggly beard on his chin, and…horns poking out from the mess of curly brunette hair on his head? And to complete the picture, from the waist down he was a pants less brown goat…

            Panting, the guy rushed (trotted?) up to Chiron. “Sorry I’m late, I just got sidetracked dealing with a couple of rogue dryads, and…” He noticed the Ross kids staring at him. “Who’re they?”

            “Ah, yes,” the centaur said. He gestured to the goat-man. “Children, this is Grover Underwood. He is a resident satyr here at our camp. Grover, meet Luke, Emma, Ravi, and Zuri Ross. They arrived here a little while ago after a brief incident in the subway station.”

            (“ _’Brief incident’_?” Zuri muttered to Ravi. “He’s serious?”)

            “Hey,” Grover greeted them. After shaking hands, he inquired, “Are you guys new campers?”

            “New campers? I don’t think so,” Emma replied, shaking her head.

            “But that would be super cool!” Luke added.

            “But what about Aunt Carrie?” Ravi asked, looking at his older brother. “She is likely horribly concerned for our wellbeing…”

            “Yeah,” Emma agreed. “Thanks for having us here, we really appreciate it, but we _really_ have to get back to her.”

            Chiron nodded, “Very well. But you should be aware that this is the only relatively safe place in the world for demigods such as yourselves. Leaving without at least some minor form of combat training would subject you to all kinds of danger upon doing so.”

            After a couple seconds of considering this, Zuri piped up. “We should stay here.”

            Her three siblings looked at her, Emma and Ravi in surprise and Luke in glee. “What…? Why?” Emma asked.

            “You aren’t blind!” Zuri stood up from her seat. “You saw what happened back there! What if that Slenderman wannabe decides to come back to finish the job?”

            “She’s right,” another one of the counselors, a blonde girl, confirmed. “Once you learn you’re a demigod, your divine scent becomes stronger, making it easier for monsters to track you down and get you. Trust me, you’re better off staying here.”

            “But what about _Aunt Carrie_?” Ravi stressed.

            “Don’t worry, Ravi,” Emma reassured, “She can come to us.”

            “Actually she can’t,” the brunette man (who could probably watch the world end right in front of him and remain unfazed) finally droned. He eyed his diet Coke for a second before sipping from it. “You _must_ have heard Chiron. Unless you all had special passes – which I doubt – only half-bloods are allowed through the barrier that surrounds this camp. It’s a protection policy for _you_ little delinquents.” He frowned at his drink, which was now empty. Sighing, the man set the can down, which Grover took and began to munch on gratefully. With a snap of the wine god’s fingers, a glass of red wine appeared in his hand.

            “Dionysus…” Chiron warned.

            “Hm? Oh, my apologies,” Mr. D said, not at all sounding sorry. The god snapped his fingers a second time, and the wine was replaced with another can of diet Coke. As he sipped at it, everyone else continued the conversation.

            “Anyway, “ Travis’s twin brother, Connor, spoke, and all the kids turned their attention to him, “Annabeth over there is right. You all know you’re demigods now. That’s not good. I mean, that’s great, but not good that more monsters are gonna be after you now. You should really think about crashing here.”

            Emma folded her arms. “But…how long will we be here? And how will we get to Aunt Carrie’s house after this? She lives on the opposite end of the country!”

            “You will be staying here for at least the remainder of summer,” Chiron replied. “As for returning to your aunt, I assure you that we shall think of a viable excuse for your disappearance in due time. For now, enjoy your time and camp, and work hard. Connor and Travis here, who will be your cabin counselors, will show you around.”

            As two virtually identical boys mock saluted the centaur, the four Ross siblings glanced at each other and shrugged. If they were going to be stuck at a summer camp full of half-god children who trained and fought off homicidal monsters for a living, then they might as well make the best of it. Meanwhile, Connor and Travis Stoll rushed up to them with identical mischievous grins.

            Travis started. “Hello, welcome to the official Camp Half-Blood tour! My name is Travis, and this is-“

            “We already know your names! Just get on with it already!” Zuri interrupted.

            “Wow, tough crowd!” Connor _tsked_. “This is your first time actually seeing the place instead of getting chased here, so we need to have _some_ semblance of formality!”

            “Yeah, have some respect!” Travis added. Zuri only rolled her eyes as the duo led them outside and showed them around.

* * *

 

            “…And over here are the cabins! Each cabin holds all the children of one Greek god or goddess. Don’t ask me how they can have so many kids at once.” Travis said as he led the group through the camp.

            Connor continued, “You guys will be staying over at this one, the Hermes cabin.”

            “You mean the old beat up one?” Zuri asked.

            “We prefer to call it ‘well-loved’.” Travis corrected. “Anyway, this is where all the new kids go until they’re claimed by their godly parent. Boys go in one part, and girls are in the other. Later, we’ll give you a grand tour of the inside. But for now…”

            “You look a little short on weapons,” Connor finished, winking.

* * *

 

            The training area was huge. All around them, there were demigods in orange shirts sparring with swords, shooting arrows, or locked in very violent wrestling matches. There was even a training course with dummies, and a rock climbing wall with real lava! The Stoll brothers grinned at the Ross kids, who were too busy gawking to notice. After a little bit of sightseeing, they made their way over to where an older man and what looked like one of the campers were locked in a mock sword fight. The man, who seemed to be in his late forties or early fifties, had tan skin, graying hair, a short beard, and sparkling brown eyes. For someone who was busy swiping at a girl with a sword, he seemed pretty friendly. Meanwhile, the camper, a female who looked to be about fifteen, was blocking each of his blows with ease. It was obvious she had been doing this for a while. She had a determined gleam in her green eyes, and had long brunette hair pulled back in a single braid. She was a little taller than Emma.

            As soon as the two were finished sparring (there was no clear winner), Travis and Connor both called out to the man. “Hey, Frank! We’ve got new campers for you!”

            “Well hey, kids!” the man greeted as he came over. “What brings you to our humble little camp?”

            “An accident,” Emma quickly responded. Thankfully, the older male didn’t ask her to clarify.

            “I’m Frank Miller,” he stated (with a slight Southern accent). “I’m the main trainer and weapons expert ‘round these parts. There was another guy before me, but he went away and I took over. Pleasure meetin’ ya.” He gestured to the girl he had been sparring with, who came up behind him. “And this here is Megan Valencia, daughter of Nemesis and sword extraord’naire.”

            In response to all of the Ross kids’ greetings, Megan only offered a simple, “Hey.”

            “I’m Emma,” Emma said, taking Frank’s extended hand and shaking it. “I’m the oldest.”

            “I’m Luke! I’m great at dancing!” The freckled tween stated. He winked at Megan as he added, “And _not_ bad with the ladies, either!” The sword holder only rolled her eyes at him.

            “I am Ravi. It is very nice to meet you.” The smaller boy also shook Frank’s hand.

            Finally, Zuri spoke up. “I’m Zuri, and I like ponies!”

            Frank chuckled. “Well, if you like ponies, then you’ll love all the pegasai we keep here!” He looked at all the Ross children. “So, do ya’ll have weapons yet? I’m guessing that’s why Travis ‘n Connor brought you here.”

            “Weapons…?” Emma hesitantly asked.

            “Yeah, weapons! Don’t know why you sound so surprised. The camps full of ‘em!” Frank stated as he steered the group towards a vault a safe distance behind the lava rock wall. “This way, folks. Now, you don’t have to choose what you want right away since there’re a lot ‘o choices, but make sure yer at least considerin’ which weapon you think you’d be best at usin’!”

            “Okay!” Zuri responded. Emma thought her younger sister sounded _way_ too enthusiastic.

            Frank opened the door, and waited for everyone else to enter the storage unit before walking in himself and shutting it. It was dark inside, and Emma had to wait a couple seconds for her eyes to adjust as soon as Travis flipped a light switch somewhere. As soon as she was able to see clearly, the blond started. Rows upon rows of blades, guns, and every other weapon she could imagine (including what appeared to be a Speedo – she didn’t even want to know why _that_ was there) laid upon tables inside the vault. As they all walked through the rows inspecting the different objects, the thirteen-year-old felt slightly uneasy. Whacking a monster on the head with a purse to distract them was one thing, but using a real weapon with the intent to kill was entirely different.

            Across from her stood Zuri, who seemed to be having trouble deciding which weapon she liked _best._ The little girl was walking around, eyeing all the various tables like they contained dolls and candy rather than deadly objects. The expression on the seven-year-old’s face was decidedly _not_ cute as she went up to a very pointy bronze blade that looked to be about four feet long. It had a brown leather handle studded with tin rubies that would have been somewhat attractive had it not attracted _Zuri’s_ attention.

            “This looks cool!” she commented as she started to pick up. Emma was about to tell her no when Luke beat her to it.

“It’s too big for you,” he said as he walked over to the young girl. He inspected it before grinning and grabbing it. “But not for me! Hello, gorgeous!” He raised it and proclaimed, “This sword and me were made for each other! I’m calling it Slicer!”

There was a pause, in which Emma deadpanned, “Slicer? Seriously?”

Zuri simply rolled her eyes and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “Showoff” before her eyes fell on something else. Emma followed her gaze, and felt her stomach drop when she noticed it, too – an alarmingly large gun laying just a few feet away. “Ooo, shiny!” The little girl said as she began to make her way over to its location. Refusing to allow her little sister to obtain such a weapon, the blond hurried over and stopped her.

“I think we’re done window shopping for now,” Emma told Frank (while ignoring Zuri’s sour expression directed at her).

The man shrugged. “Suit yerself. You and Zuri can look for yers tomorrow.” He glanced down at his wristwatch. “Looks like it’s almost dinnertime. Why don’t you kids go on ‘n start headin’ towards the dining area? Travis and Connor here’ll show you the way.”

As they all filed out, Emma noticed a small set of a black bow and arrows that Ravi had slung over his shoulder. He must have chosen it while she had her attention on Zuri. Noticing Emma’s glance, her younger brother simply shrugged as if to say _what?_ and continued outside. Sighing, the blond followed them to the dining area, where Travis and Connor led the Rosses to a wide table that was already pretty crowded. Besides that table, there were many campers at the other ones that Emma noticed had already gotten food, but hadn’t started eating yet. Were they waiting for something?

After several minutes (in which the Ares table caused a ruckus, Zuri got grossed out by a kid picking his nose and scooted closer to her, and some Aphrodite girls began gushing over her beautiful hair), everyone quieted when the sound of a hoof tapping against wood reached their ears.

“Attention, campers!” Chiron called (even though the act was unnecessary) from where he was standing next to Frank and Mr. D on a wooden platform. “It is time for the Offering! Please line up in single file and place a portion of your meal into the fire before sitting down to eat!”

Confused, the four Ross kids copied the actions of the other campers as they grabbed their plates and lined up before the fire. As they observed, they noticed how each person would grab the finest chunk of steak or most savory vegetable on their plate and feed it to the flames. Then they would utter a swift prayer before moving out of the way to let the next person go. Ravi and Zuri both followed suit and sat back down at the Hermes table. Emma, on the other hand, hesitated after she threw a juicy strawberry in. After living her entire life believing the Greek gods were simply myths, she was at a loss as to what to pray for. In fact, if she hadn’t just learned a few months ago that she was adopted like the rest of her siblings, she would have been more devastated to figure all this demigod business out. But still, the entire last few hours had felt like a whirlwind. On another note, the Stoll brothers had said they would stay at the Hermes cabin until they were ‘claimed’ by their Olympian parents. Did that mean she and her siblings were viewed as orphans until their real parents decided to fess up? Emma didn’t much like that idea. However, if that meant they could get out of that shoddy-looking cabin sooner…

_“Whoever you are, please hurry and claim me and my brothers and sister.”_ She finally whispered. After she returned to her seat, Luke came up to the fire. He threw a generous slab of beef brisket into the inferno, but like his sister, hesitated, but for a different reason. As he watched the flames consume the meat, he wondered what his real parents were like. Was his Olympian parent male or female? Tall of short? Cool or not so cool? However, his train of thought was cut off when several of the kids behind him began to shout for him to hurry up.

Finally, he muttered, _“Uh…what she said.”_ Embarrassed, he then returned to his seat and began eating. It had been a long day, and they were all hungry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I don't know why it indents some parts and not the others. :/ Oh well, I'll fix it eventually. Anyway, thanks for reading! You guys are the best!   
> Chapter word count (not including the author's notes: 2, 707


	3. Chapter 3

            It was around 7:30 am the next day when Zuri decided to sneak out of the Hermes cabin. The feat itself wasn’t difficult – most of the other female campers, Emma included, were still snoozing in their beds. However, since waking her sister (who was _not_ a morning person) was not in her best interests, the little girl surmised it would be better to just tip-toe past all the beds rather than simply walking out. She wanted to get a better look at all the weapons and be able to pick one out without someone hovering over her, which Emma would end up doing if she was with her. Therefore, her older sister was to remain asleep in the top part of the bunk bed they were sharing. (Besides, Emma was downright scary whenever she first woke up, something that Zuri had _no_ desire in being a witness to today.)

            As soon as the young girl stepped outside the girl section of the cabin, she took a moment to breathe in the fresh morning air. Despite being so close to (or, arguably, a part of) New York City, the air in Camp Half-Blood was surprisingly clear and free of any smog or other forms of pollution. After living virtually her entire life in the big city, the seven-year-old couldn’t help but appreciate the clean feeling of this air. It wasn’t much, but it was…nice, she supposed. It definitely helped revitalize her after so many crazy things happened. Speaking of which, what would be next…?

            A brief hello from a passing camper interrupted her thoughts, and Zuri returned the greeting before starting off towards the training arena. Since the only campers really out and about at this hour were the early risers (she had learned the night before that the official time that everyone was supposed to wake up was 9:15, so most campers took advantage of that and slept until around nine o’clock), Zuri passed very few people on the way to her destination. She was just past the training course with the dummies when something a little ways off caught her eye. Over in the archery field across from a big red target stood Ravi and what looked like one of the Apollo kids (Zuri remembered seeing him at his respective table last night). Her older brother had his bow out, and was apparently receiving some private tutoring on how to use it by the senior archer. As she moved closer, she saw how the other camper would demonstrate with his arms the proper way to hold the weapon and shoot. Ravi would nod, position himself _just so_ , aim…and then completely miss the bulls-eye. This process was repeated several times. After what seemed like the fifteenth time, Ravi ran out of arrows. Zuri was near enough to hear Ravi audibly groan at his failure as the Apollo kid tried to cheer him up.

            “Hey, don’t look so down. It wasn’t _that_ bad,” he said as Ravi went to gather up his discarded arrows. When the smaller boy shot him a doubtful look, the Apollo kid shrugged. “I mean it. Seriously, it could have been a _lot_ worse. At least you didn’t nail a pedestrian, right? Anyway, all you need is some practice. I have to go meet someone in a few minutes, so I’m gonna have to leave now, but if you want, we can do this again tomorrow. Keep getting better until then, okay?” Ravi nodded, and the guy grinned at him before saying, “Later!” and walking off towards the stables. Sighing, Ravi placed the arrows in his quiver before turning around and noticing his younger sister.

            “Oh, good morning, Zuri,” He stated, a little surprised. “How long have you been standing there?”

            “Not long,” the little girl responded. As she crossed the remaining few feet between them, she glanced back in the direction the Apollo kid had vanished. “Who was that guy?” She inquired.

            “Honestly, I am not sure,” Ravi shrugged. “He was walking by and just happened to stop when he saw me struggling with my archery. He never actually told me his name.” The thin boy fiddled with his bow a tiny bit before letting out a sheepish laugh. “He was really kind about it, but I do not think his instruction helped much. I do not have good aim.”

            Zuri suppressed the urge to confirm that last statement as she plucked an arrow her brother missed out of the dewy grass. Eyeing the object, she instead questioned, “Then why did you choose the bow and arrow?”

            The ten-year-old shrugged again, thin shoulders rising. “I thought it looked cool. I was not aware I had bad aim until I actually tried it.”

            Zuri hummed in affirmation as she turned the stray object over in her fingers, examining it. After a few seconds, curiosity got the better of her and she stated, “I want to try.”

            “The archery?” Zuri nodded, and Ravi sighed. “I suppose so, but be careful.” He showed her how to use the bow before adding, “Do not be discouraged if you do not hit the target on your first try.”

            “Wanna bet?” Zuri cheekily grinned. Before Ravi could respond, she pulled back the string, released the projectile, and watched it embed itself in the white section just outside of the target’s center. It wasn’t a perfect bull’s-eye, but it was a heck of a lot closer than any of Ravi’s shots had been.

            As the seven-year-old beamed, her older brother only gaped at her (and the target) in amazement. After a moment, he stuttered out, “Wha-? How…?”

            As she handed the bow back to the other child, Zuri only responded, “I’m just that talented. That’s how.” (Truthfully, it had surprised her as well that she had managed to hit the target, but Ravi didn’t need to know that particular tidbit of information.) After her brother regained his composure, the younger girl grinned again and said, “Anyway, come with me to that weapon storage place! I didn’t get to pick anything out yesterday!”

            “I am guessing that is the real reason you are up this early.” Ravi stated, changing subject along with her. While Zuri tended to wake up before Emma or Luke, she was never out of bed before at least nine am if she could help it. Ravi had always been the earliest riser of the four. In order for the seven-year-old to wake up at the same time as him, she had to have been extremely motivated. Finally, the raven-haired boy consented and followed her to the weapons vault.

* * *

 

            After pulling the door open, the two siblings stepped into the vault and looked around. It was just as chock-full of things as last time, so there was plenty for Zuri to choose from. As she strolled through the aisles, Ravi stayed by the door and fiddled with one of his arrows (he’d just noticed that the point on the end had come loose, and he was attempting to fix it).

            As the young girl examined all the various objects before her, she wondered which one would be the best to use. They all looked so cool! How did everyone expect her to choose just one? Right as her eyes fell on the machine gun from before, Ravi gave up on trying to fix the arrow and looked up. Starting, he quickly walked over to his younger sister, who was currently attempting to pick the freakishly huge gun up, but clearly failing due to its weight. Gently, he put his hand on her shoulder and (after making sure the gun wouldn’t fall off the table) pulled her away.

            “How about you select something else?” he suggested. Before Zuri had the chance to voice any protests, he picked up a ( _much_ ) smaller handgun and held it out. “What do you think of this one?”

            Zuri huffed, wrinkling up her nose. “It’s no fun when they’re little.”

            “Uh…right…” He didn’t really agree with her statement, but the thin boy decided to ignore it when he found another one. “And this one?” Ravi asked, picking up a small, fairly generic looking dagger. “What about this one?”

            “No.”

            The 10-year-old held back a sigh. She really wasn’t making this easy. Finally, Ravi noticed one that seemed to be partially hidden over what looked like a spiked ball and chain. Gingerly reaching under the sharp object, he carefully slid the smaller thing out and examined it. After a few seconds, he called out to Zuri (who had gotten bored and started to wander away only seconds ago), “How about this one? It appears to be nice.”

            The small girl turned around and eyed the weapon for a couple seconds before saying, “A slingshot? Seriously?” When her brother nodded, she walked back over and took it from his outstretched hand. Upon examining it she realized that it really _was_ actually very pretty – tiny, complex little designs decorated the bronze metal, and what appeared to be some sort of easy-grip material coated a section of the handle. She had to admit, it _was_ nice. Zuri just wished it was bigger and more…oh, what was that word Emma sometimes used? _Glamorous._

            “So, what do you think?” Ravi inquired, interrupting her thoughts.

            “I don’t-“ Before she finished, she noticed a small row of what appeared to be three tiny buttons just above the handle. They were the same color as the handle and barely noticeable, so they would be easily overlooked unless someone had the weapon close to their face or was specifically looking for them. Curious, she pressed the first one, and yelped when the parts of the slingshot began to shift. As two thin slips of metal began to wrap themselves around her arm, she quickly slapped the object off in surprise. As soon as it hit the ground, the weapon collapsed back into its original form.

            Gasping for a moment, the little girl glanced up at her older brother, who appeared to be equally surprised at this development. Hesitantly, Zuri knelt down and scooped the unusual slingshot back up. She eyed it for a few more seconds, and then pressed the button again. This time, she waited and watched as the weapon transformed itself into a thin but strong shield that attached to the arm that had been holding it.

            “Cool!” she exclaimed. She tried the next button, which turned the shield into a spear, and the last, which caused it to return back to being a slingshot. A wide grin appeared on the seven-year-old’s face as she looked back at Ravi, who still hadn’t quite recovered from the initial shock. “It’s perfect!” Zuri added. “I’m taking it!”

            “Oh?” Ravi snapped out of the semi-trance he had been in and said, “Oh…uh, okay…”

            His sister continued to beam. “I’m going to go show this to Emma and Luke!” She exclaimed, running out of the vault.

            “Wait! I think they are still-“ But Zuri was already gone. “-asleep…Oh, never mind…” Ravi sighed as he was left alone. Why was it his siblings were always in a rush? Now he would have to play the part of damage control when Zuri inevitably woke up Emma. Forcing the slight twinge of irritation he felt down, he allowed his mind to move on to other things. Speaking of waking up, he would have to go back to the cabin fairly soon and drag Luke out of bed…his older brother was never good at getting up by himself. Normally waking him up would be Jessie’s job, but now…

            Sighing again, Ravi pushed himself to his feet (he had started leaning against the table while in thought), and calmly walked out of the vault, taking care to turn the light off and close the door before he left. He would have about ten minutes of relative silence before he would arrive back at the cabin and have to calm each of his siblings down. (Emma and Zuri from nearly killing each other – and just by virtue of getting in between them, stop them from killing _him_ – and Luke from having his sleep interrupted.) He did love each of his siblings, but they did get slightly tiresome to be around occasionally…

            Oh, well. Ravi would just have to enjoy the peace while he could.

* * *

 

            At breakfast, Emma sat near all her siblings at the Hermes table and ate in silence. She was still a little peeved about earlier. Seriously, how _dare_ that pigtailed pipsqueak she calls a sister wake her up just to shove a slingshot in her face?! Didn’t she know Emma needed her beauty sleep?! And to make matters worse, Ravi had _allowed_ Zuri to have a weapon that changed shape! Didn’t he realize that Zuri was _only seven?!_ He was supposed to be the smart one of her two brothers! Argh, and he knew he screwed up, too – Emma could see him pointedly avoiding her glares from across the table. Why did nothing ever work out for her in the morning?!

            Emma’s inner rant (and the brutal murder of her sausage via fork) was disrupted when one of the Hermes kids commented, “Mail’s here.”

            She nearly shot a glare towards the guilty party, but ended up turning towards Luke when he spoke. “Uh, Emma?”

            “What?”

            The freckled tween held up a copy of the newspaper that he must of grabbed from one of the kids sitting next to him. “You might want to see this.” At first, Emma was confused (they delivered newspapers here? And since when was it actually of any interest to Luke?), but then her eyes fell upon the front headline. On it was a picture of a wrecked subway with frightened-looking people standing behind several uniformed guards. Directly below the photo were letters in bold print that read, _Giant Bird Attacks Subway Car! Four Celebrity Children Disappear in the Chaos!_

            Blinking in surprise, Emma snatched the newspaper from Luke and continued reading the article. _Just yesterday, several passengers loaded onto one of the subway trains and headed for their destinations. It was a perfectly normal day, that is, until an unusually large animal suddenly appeared and went on a rampage. Thankfully, all the stations were evacuated in record time, so there were no casualties. However, that isn’t all there is to this strange occurrence._

_“I thought it might have been some sort of enormous bird, but I’m not quite sure,” Jennifer Shurshaw (who had been on the way to her job at a post office when the calamity occurred), 26, states. “It was above the windows, so no one could get a good look at what exactly it was. Either way, I’ve never been so terrified in my life!”_

_“Yes,” David Winslow (who had been on the way to visit his daughter at her college), 45, agrees. “However, I’m sure the four kids that were in there with us were even more so. At one point, I looked over to see if they were alright, but they weren’t there.”_

_The four children mentioned were actually Emma (13), Luke (12), Ravi (10), and Zuri (7) Ross (sons and daughters of the late Morgan and Christina Ross), who were heading to live with a relative after the events of a custody battle in court last month. Evidence at the scene indicates that they left the car through the emergency exit shortly after the attack began. Their reason for doing this is currently unknown, but updates are expected as this missing persons case unfolds._

There was more to the article, but Emma didn’t have the stomach to read the rest. She couldn’t believe that the media had already found out about the crash. Well, no, she actually could believe that. But it wasn’t the part that bothered her. Their names were plastered all over the paper, and probably the TV news station as well. Again. Emma wasn’t dumb, and she knew her siblings weren’t either. They knew what this meant. Slowly, she took a deep breath to calm herself and lowered the paper. All three of her younger siblings were looking back at her. Sighing, the blond placed the newspaper on the table and crossed her arms. Even though everyone else in the breakfast area was chattering away, silence loomed over the four. A good two minutes passed before Zuri finally spoke.

            “They didn’t see the monster?”

            Out of all the things Zuri could have noticed in the article, _that_ was what she decided to focus on? Still, Emma had to admit that it _was_ kind of odd. They may have not been able to see the whatever-it-was throughout most of the attack, but it had still been obvious that it wasn’t anything even close to resembling a bird.

            Luke shrugged. “Guess not.” He continued eating his breakfast, Ravi and Zuri eventually following suit. Emma, however, just sat and played with her food. She didn’t feel hungry anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!   
> Chapter word count (not including the author's notes): 2, 817


	4. Chapter 4

            The next three hours proceeding breakfast were relatively uneventful. Other than a few whispers and stares directed at them (which was not unexpected – news travelled fast in this place), the four siblings made their way through several of the various activities offered at the camp without a hitch. However, it wasn’t long after that that they finally grew bored and decided to return to their cabin. There, the foursome sat in relative silence while partially engaged in their own distractions.

            Emma sat on her bed reading a magazine that she had borrowed from another camper. The actual content of it (fishing? Seriously?) didn’t really interest her, but anything was better than looking through that newspaper again. Despite that, the teen hadn’t been able to bring herself to dispose of it once breakfast ended. Instead, the telltale paper had been placed at the foot of the bed, where it was now lying innocently face down, as if it hadn’t just announced to the entire camp (and state of New York at the very least) that they were the ‘missing’ children of Morgan and Christina Ross.

            As soon as Emma reached her limit as to how many fishing pole pictures she could look at in a day (which was not very many), she quit flipping through the magazine and set it down next to her on the blanket. She glanced down at her siblings, who were all attempting to entertain themselves by other means. Zuri had found some crayons and paper and was doodling something that might have been Millie (but might have also been a sausage with a tail carrying a pitchfork, she wasn’t sure), Ravi was trying to repair more of his arrows (that bow really hadn’t been a good choice for him, she mused), and Luke was polishing his sword (surprise, surprise, Luke _did_ know what cleaning was – now to work on teaching him how to properly _bathe_ ). Sighing in boredom, Emma climbed down from the top bunk and walked to the door.

            “I’m going back outside,” The teen announced, right before the door opened on its own and smacked her in the face.

“Hey guys, Capture the Flag is starting soon! You need to-“ Travis noticed Emma standing and rubbing her nose. “Oh, sorry. You okay?”

            “ _Fine_ ,” Emma hissed out. Well, at least nothing was bleeding.

            Before she could say anything else, Luke perked up from his spot on someone’s bottom bunk and asked, “Capture the Flag?”

            “Yeah!” Connor poked his head in from behind his brother. “This is your first game, right? Come on, just grab your weapons and I’ll explain on the way.”

            Travis then asked Emma, “You don’t have one yet, do you?” When the blonde shook her head, he scratched the back of his neck for a second before responding, “Well, never mind that. We’ll figure something out.”

            “Hurry!” Connor urged as the other Rosses began scrambling to gather up their things. “They’re about to start!” Within the next minute, everyone (excluding Emma) was all geared up and hurrying towards their destination.

* * *

 

            All the other campers had already gathered and divided into separate groups by the time they arrived. Travis and Connor quickly ushered them over to the Hermes cabin spot right as chatter was beginning to die down. Glancing around, the Rosses spotted Chiron, who was starting to speak.

            “As you all know, today is our weekly Capture the Flag tournament,” the centaur began. As the lead counselor reviewed all the rules, Luke quickly grew bored and tuned him out (a skill that often came in handy during school), focusing instead on all the other campers’ weapons. One kid had a huge spear, another had a crossbow, and he noticed several different variations of blade weapons (daggers, swords, etc) owned by others. It seemed they were popular. The freckled 12-year-old glanced down at his own sword. His reflection stared right back – thanks to his awesome polishing job. Oh yeah, this was going to be fun.

            “ _Connor!_ ” He heard Emma whisper, trying not to bring attention to herself. “ _You said we’d figure something out, and nothing’s happened!_ ”

            “ _Oh, right…_ ” The twin replied. “ _Uh…_ ” He looked around before seemingly noticing someone. He turned back to Emma and said, “ _Hang on, I know what to do._ ” A few seconds later, the older camper returned with a slightly short brown-eyed, freckled girl with shoulder-length wavy red hair (that was clearly dyed, but her real hair color wasn’t visible) and a long dagger in hand. She sort of reminded Luke of Jessie…hair-wise, anyway.

            “Emma, this is Cathy _._ ” Connor introduced. The girl waved and said hi, and Connor turned to her. “You wouldn’t mind letting Emma over here borrow your dagger, right? Just for the game _._ ”

            “Of course not _,_ ” She responded, grinning.

            She handed Emma her weapon, to which Emma responded, “Wait, what about you? Doesn’t that just leave you defenseless?”

            “Nope. Pull on both sides of the dagger _._ ”

            Emma did just that, and started when it suddenly split in two. Panicked, the blonde glanced back up at Cathy, only to hear her giggle at the sight of her reaction. “Don’t worry, you didn’t break it. Double Trouble is supposed to do that _._ ” The redhead reclaimed half of her knife, grinning as she added “You can use it until you get a weapon of your own.”

            “Oh, uh…thank you,” Emma said, looking down at the blade clutched in her hand.

_I guess she still doesn’t really like the idea of using a weapon…_ Luke thought before finally turning his attention back to Chiron, who was wrapping up on the rules. “…And lastly, _no_ killing or maiming.” The centaur ignored all the protests sounding from the Ares cabin. “The entire forest is up for use, and the stream is the borderline! I will serve as the referee and in-battle medic!” As if on cue, a shield, sword, medical kit and bronze armor materialized itself on the man, and he trotted off into the woods with the cheering campers following. Unsure of what else to do, the Ross kids pursued their team mates to the flag site.

* * *

 

           “Hey! Quit daydreaming over there and _pay attention_!”

            Luke growled, focusing on tightening his grip around Slicer’s handle rather than his partner’s throat. Seriously, out of all the other campers available for this job, why was _he_ the one who had to get placed on guard duty with this jerk?! Sure, he may have spaced out while Chiron was explaining the rules…and maybe while Conner and Travis were briefing them as they ran over…but he could have figured everything out as he went! It was no reason to stick him on guard duty! While Luke was trapped there with some annoying guy (who was continuing to berate him for something or another – Luke had stopped registering what he was saying seconds ago), his siblings were getting to have all the fun by helping to retrieve the other team’s flag. (Even Ravi and Emma! Instead of him!) It wasn’t fair!

            Absently, the freckled 12-year-old’s mind wandered over to the newspaper article. How many people knew they were missing by now? How many people actually cared? What about Jessie and Bertram? Had they found new jobs, and were they and Aunt Carrie worried about them? Were they even aware of what had happened? He was pretty sure that particular paper was pretty popular in New York, but he wasn’t sure how quickly the news had spread to other states. But considering how big the story of their parents’ deaths had been, this new one had probably made national news by now at least. Luke barely bit back a snarl at the thought. He and his brother and sisters had already had to endure the nosy reporters and constant intrusion of their time of grief once. Within hours of learning of their parents’ deaths, people from various radio and news channels had been swarming the penthouse. Cameras were rolling as microphone after microphone was thrust into each child’s face, following with questions like “So both your parents have met their untimely demises in a tragic car accident. What are you kids planning on doing now?” or “how does this make you feel?”

_Mom and Dad are_ dead _! How do you_ think _I feel!?_ Luke had wanted nothing more than to punch one of the invasive cameramen or scream at them all to go away. The paparazzi had acted as if his parents’ deaths had been their business and that they had every right to be there watching and recording the Ross family and Jessie grieve. They _didn’t._ They didn’t know what it was like to have your nanny tell you while choking down tears that your parents were gone, or what it was like to have people you don’t know that shouldn’t be there recording your parents’ funeral and catching every tear shed on tape, or how it felt to have other kids in your school and strangers walking down the street you’ve never met before stop you and tell you they’re “sorry about your parents”. Luke had hated it. Hated it _all._

            An outburst from the male next to him snapped him out of his thoughts. “Are you even _listening!?_ I _said_ -“

            “I _get_ it already! Now shut up!”

            Before the other camper could form a retort, the sound of leaves rustling interrupted them. Bringing his sword higher and closer to his body, Luke hesitated until he saw a figure emerge from the bushes. Screaming, the tween charged at them and swung, only for the person to vanish and Slicer to become wedged within a tall tree’s trunk. A high-pitched feminine voice began screaming incoherent insults at him, and Luke glanced upwards in surprise. The person had reappeared on an outstretched tree branch several yards above and was scowling down at him while continuing in her strange language.

            “Idiot!” Huffed the boy next to the brunette. “That’s a dryad! Don’t you know anything?” The labeled dryad (who had a green leaf dress on, brunette hair, chocolate skin, and brown eyes, he noticed now that he got a good look at her) finally finished her lecture and shot one last scorching look at Luke before sticking out her emerald tongue (and making a _very_ rude gesture) and disappearing.

            Luke rolled his eyes (women – you couldn’t live with them, you couldn’t live without them) and turned back towards the critical teen. “Don’t you have something else to do? Like shutting up or something?”

            “Don’t you? Like, oh I don’t know, _actually watching for other people?_ ”

            Without warning, a loud roar sounded from further in the woods, and the two males jumped before swiftly readying their weapons. As he frantically glanced around the small clearing they stood in (while circling the team flag), Luke held his sword in front of him and waved it in whatever direction the different sounds seemed to be coming from. However, at the moment they were coming from all over. What sounded eerily like screams began mingling with the deep rumbling, and Luke heard his partner turn the safety off of his gun as the noises drew nearer to their base. The air grew tenser and tenser until several campers from their team (including Ravi, who was all out of arrows) ran into the clearing while screaming various things in terror.

            “I’m scared!”

            “RUN!!!”

            “I want my mommy!”

            “It’s Clarisse! She’s coming!”

            “Clarisse…?” His partner froze as he said it, looking scared out of his wits.

            “Clarisse?” Luke echoed. “Who’s that?”

            Another roar (which could now be recognized as a very fearsome battle cry being done by several people at once) sounded through the forest, and the other teen said, “It looks like you’re about to find out!”

            Not ten seconds later, several frighteningly large forms (Luke realized they were the Ares cabin members decked out in full armor and weapons) burst into the flag clearing chasing…wait, was that Zuri?! The 7-year-old was hugging what looked to be the opposing team’s flag to her chest and running as fast as her little legs could carry her towards their post. Her slingshot was nowhere in sight – she must have dropped it somewhere along the way. She was almost to the goal post when she suddenly tripped on a tree root jutting out of the ground and fell. The Ares cabin members shouted in victory and closed in for the finishing blow.

            “ _ZURI!_ ” Luke heard Ravi cry out in panic. Or was that himself? Several of the campers on their team surged forth to try and help the little girl, but there was no way they would get there in time – the Ares kids were too close. Just when all seemed lost, Zuri suddenly flipped onto her back and used the long flag in her arms to trip the kid nearest to her. Before he could react, she quickly swiped his shield and used it to force a few other campers out of her way as she made another run for the goal while a few of her teammates (who were finally within range) distracted the Ares kids. Zuri didn’t see one girl break away and step in front of her, though. When she did notice, she struggled to come to a stop and was close to sliding right into the older female (Luke believed she was the one named Clarisse).

            “Alright, shrimp! Fun time’s over!” Clarisse growled as she readied her spear. The object crackled with electricity. Just when Zuri was seconds away from potentially being shish-kebobbed, the small 7-year-old dived to the ground and slid between Clarisse’s legs, getting past the Ares kid right as she brought her spear down and got it lodged in the ground. Scrambling to their team’s flag pole, Zuri wasted no time in throwing the opposing team’s flag down onto the goal and thrusting her fist into the air in triumph.

           “ _Victory!_ Now that’s what I’m talking about!” She cheered. To the Ares kids, she yelled, “Take _that,_ ya meanies! Millie slipped your precious flag from right under your noses!” Once she realized she was the only one celebrating, the little girl looked around in confusion. Upon noticing everyone staring at her (all the other campers – minus the Ares kids, who also looked ticked off – in awe, but Ravi and Luke in shock), Zuri squeaked, “…What?”

            Ravi responded, “Zuri…you are glowing!”

            “I am?” She glanced down at herself, and sure enough, her skin radiated with a harsh blood-red tone. She averted her eyes upwards and gasped – hovering just a few inches above her head was a spinning picture of a spear. Stunned, the young Ross gazed up at it in wonder. What was happening?

            The sound of hoof beats resonated through the clearing (which now seemed even more crowded with all the people) and campers parted to create a walking path for Chiron as he entered. Even Clarisse, who had finally unstuck her spear from the ground, grudgingly stepped aside. The noble centaur clopped up to where Zuri was standing and calmly glanced up at the symbol before turning to look at Luke at Ravi.

           “She is being claimed.” He stated, answering the Ross kids’ unvoiced inquiry. Gently, Chiron raised Zuri’s hand into the air with his own. His voice traveled across the area as he announced, “Behold Zuri Ross, daughter of Ares, the god of war.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Zuri's parent was originally Demeter, but in recent light of several of the later episodes of Jessie (with her being in karate and her personality in general and everything), I decided that Ares would be a better fit for her. Hope you guys agree. ;) Anyway, thanks for reading!  
> Chapter word count (not including the author's notes): 2, 558


	5. Chapter 5

            Not five minutes after Zuri was claimed, she was dragged off somewhere by her newfound half-siblings. Luke wasn’t sure where they were heading, but he thought he heard a couple of the Ares kids shouting something about ‘initiation’, whatever that meant. Although several other campers seemed to be nervous about it (and were determined to avoid the bathrooms for at least the next hour), the freckled tween wasn’t too worried; after all, Zuri could stick up for herself, and besides, it didn’t look like there were any hard feelings remaining between her and the other Ares cabin members. Spitting into their palms and shaking hands like that meant they made up, right?

            Speaking of being dragged away, Luke found himself being marched in the general direction of the training area by several of his teammates. They weren’t all there just to make sure he got there (most had simply been going in the same direction and had decided to tag along), but enough just happened to be present that it somewhat wounded Luke’s pride. Didn’t they trust him to go there on his own? Sure, he may have initially resisted the idea of being forced to practice fencing more, but it was his teammates’ own faults since they had insulted his natural sword skills. All they had to do was kindly apologize and send him on his merry way. But no, they just _had_ to pull together a freaking _escort_ to march him towards a trainer. Normally Luke would have enjoyed the attention he was receiving from all the other people passing by, but this was just uncalled for.

            Granted, he wasn’t technically the only one being led away, but he might as well have been considering Ravi didn’t look the least bit upset with their company – or maybe he was and just wasn’t showing it? Luke couldn’t tell. The younger boy seemed preoccupied with something in his hands as he followed along quietly just behind his older brother. Upon twisting his head back a little farther, Luke could see that it was another broken arrow. Sheesh, how many of those had he lost now? At least six? He really should have chosen something different…

            Before he knew it, the group arrived in front of a field used for fencing. Several other campers were already on it either practicing on targets or dueling with one another, but it was far from being completely filled up. Once most of the crowd surrounding him had dispersed (much to his relief), Luke turned back towards the Stoll twins (the main culprits who had started this) and crossed his arms.

            “Okay, you got me here. Happy?”

            “Very,” Travis responded. “Now you’re going to go over there and learn how to use your weapon.”

            “I can use it fine!”

            “No, you really can’t.” Conner retorted. “Look, we get it, you’re new to this. But with an attitude like that you’ll never figure out how to fence.”

            “And you’ll be dead meat in no time.” Travis added. “So get practicing.”

            Luke opened his mouth to protest further when Ravi suddenly cut him off. “It is fine, Brother. Just do what he says.”

_The little traitor!_ Luke scowled over at his younger brother. “Oh, yeah? What about you? Your archery sucks.”

            The 10-year-old looked like he was about to say something back, but before he could, Conner quickly butted in. “Enough. Ravi here was just about to go off to the archery fields over there. Right?” The smaller boy was still for half a second before nodding. “Okay then.”

            As one Stoll led Ravi away, the other turned back towards Luke. “Since you clearly have no clue how to use that sword, and Frank doesn’t have time to teach today, you’re going to be getting a lesson from a more experienced camper.”

           “Really? Who?” The 12-year-old couldn’t help but ask.

           “Me,” spoke a voice from behind. Starting, Luke turned around and came face-to-face with the girl Frank had been fencing with that first day he and his siblings arrived at camp. What had her name been…? Meg-something? …Megan! Megan simply jerked her head towards an open sparring ground, indicating for Luke to follow her as the brunette walked over. Once both were on opposite ends of the marked-off square, Megan unsheathed her sword (a plain-looking bronze sword, nothing near as cool as his) and Luke followed suit. When the teenager went into what looked like a battle stance, Luke copied her. He hardly had any time to react when she suddenly lunged forward, though.

           “Woah! Wait!” The freckled boy barely avoided getting his leg cut as he moved Slicer in front of him to protect against Megan’s furious attacks. “What the heck are you doing?!”

           The brunette’s offense didn’t let up as she calmly responded, “I need to see what you’re capable of. Otherwise I can’t show you anything useful.” When Luke nearly tripped over himself trying to avoid her blade, she deadpanned, “You’re new to this. You’re leaving yourself wide open.”

           “Uh, yeah, no duh!” The 12-year-old rolled out of the way of one swing. “You’re supposed to teach me how to- hey!” He barely managed to dodge an attack that was _way_ too close for comfort. “Watch it! That one almost hit me!”

           “And?” Megan sounded almost bored, and it was _really_ starting to irritate Luke.

           “And?! You’re supposed to be teaching me, not trying to- ugh!” His blade met Megan’s, and the force nearly knocked him over. “-kill me! I just started doing this!”

           “Monsters won’t care about that,” The two blades clashed a second time. “Enemy demigods won’t, either. You need to be prepared to face both.” She started putting more strength behind her blows, each one making it harder and harder for him to keep his sword from flying out of his grip as he tried to block them.

           “St-stop!”

           Her borderline-monotonously toned words cut worse than her blade. “Where did all that confidence you had about your self-proclaimed skills during Capture the Flag go? I heard you had to be led over here like a toddler because you couldn’t accept that you don’t have any.”

_That_ struck a nerve. Luke could feel his face getting flushed with anger and embarrassment, and he growled as he used his sword to violently shove hers off. “Take that back!”

           The teenager didn’t even flinch, and it took her less than a second to regain her balance and deflect every one of the freckled tween’s attacks. “You have a short temper,” She noted as she dodged. “That will make it easy for anyone to provoke you into attacking. When you immediately go on the offense without watching yourself…” A simple swing of Megan’s sword, and Slicer was out of Luke’s hands and on the ground, with a sword pointing at his throat to end the duel. “…You leave yourself wide open. Don’t let your emotions control you in times like these. You’ll only regret it.”

           Luke was too angry to form a response. Grating his teeth, he shoved her sword away (being careful to avoid the sharp edges) and went to pick up Slicer. He slid the blade back into the sheath attached to his belt and shot a nasty glare at a couple of campers that had been observing the match and snickering. The duo quickly shut up and suddenly seemed to find a duel happening several yards away more interesting. As soon as they left, Luke turned back towards Megan and crossed his arms.

           “I’m done. I’ll find someone else to practice with.”

           Megan just shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

           The 12-year-old tried to think of something biting to say, to get past that _ridiculously annoying_ personality of hers and get under her skin just to spite her, but came up with nothing. Instead, he huffed and walked away, frustrated, upset, and humiliated. How _dare_ she _embarrass_ him right in the middle of the training area like that _on purpose_ and not even _apologize_?! She hadn’t even taught him anything he could use! And that arrogant air about her the entire time was just… _argh!_ And to think that he had thought her cute at first sight!

           After a couple minutes, Luke realized he was storming off in the direction of the archery field. If nothing else, he could blow off some steam there. As he approached, the freckled tween spotted his younger brother near one of the targets with a very exacerbated-looking Apollo kid. The ground surrounding them was littered with arrows, each of which was thankfully plunger-tipped…and none of which had ended up anywhere near the target, despite Ravi’s close proximity to it. It was kind of sad to watch, but Luke was glad he wasn’t the only one struggling. By the time the 12-year-old was just a few feet from them, the younger boy was down to his last arrow and the Apollo girl was talking him through the process once again of how to hit the target. Neither had noticed Luke yet. Deciding to get a little revenge on Ravi’s stunt from earlier (even if it hardly counted as a prank), the brunette quietly approached him from behind and grabbed the 10-year-old around the torso just as he was about to release the arrow. The slightly smaller boy yelped and ended up shooting the projectile upwards, way over the bulls-eye…and straight through the open door of the stables. What were the odds?

           “Luke!” Ravi shoved his older brother away and glared at him. “I would have gotten that one!”

           “Yeah, right! Because you hit it _so_ many other times.”

           “Cut it out!” Both boys looked at the Apollo kid, who was starting to look ticked off. “I don’t care if you nearly hit it or not – that arrow could have hurt someone! Both of you go find it and apologize if you hit anyone.” They didn’t move at first, and the girl commanded, “ _Now!_ ”

           Not wanting to arouse her fury, the two brothers quickly turned around and dashed off after the rogue projectile. Ravi arrived at the wooden building first, followed just seconds later by Luke, and both gazed around for a second in wonder, their errand temporarily forgotten. (Travis and Conner had shown them the outside of the building during their tour of the camp, but this was the first time they had seen its interior.) There were white, black, chestnut, palomino, and even paint winged horses all around them in their stalls. Some were munching on hay, others were being groomed by campers, a few were dozing, and a handful was eyeing the two newcomers in curiosity. _Man, Zuri needs to come see this…_ Luke thought.

           Ravi’s voice snapped him back to the task at hand. “So…where is the arrow?”

           The freckled boy only shrugged (how should he know? The place was huge), and the smaller boy sighed and glanced around. Suddenly, he seemed to notice something and gasp. Confused, Luke looked, too, and had to work hard to hide his amusement. Approaching them was Chiron with the stray projectile in hand and an unreadable expression on his face. He must have been checking on something in the stables a second ago.

           “This is yours?” He inquired as soon as he reached the duo. Upon hearing the centaur’s voice, Ravi flushed in embarrassment and began apologizing profusely. The older man only shook his head. “There is no need to apologize. Just ensure that you are more careful from now on. Once you learn the proper way to aim, you will make an excellent archer. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the counselor’s cabin – and out of arrow range.” He handed the offending object back to Ravi and trotted off rubbing a sore spot on his back flank. Ravi looked like he wanted to go crawl under a rock.

           Once Chiron was gone, Luke burst out laughing. “Nice going, Rav! You totally nailed the head counselor!”

           Flushing deeper, Ravi shot a glare at his older brother. “It was only because you startled me!”

           The 12-year-old was almost laughing too hard to reply. “Yeah, it was awesome!”

           Ravi huffed and left the stables. Once he regained his composure (and wiped away a few tears), Luke followed. His mood had improved dramatically.

* * *

 

           “So, Cathy, who’s your parent?” Emma asked. After Capture the Flag ended and the blond gave the redhead back the other half of her dagger, the two had struck up a conversation as they walked down a path towards the rows of cabins. As luck had it, the girl was very social and easy to get along with. Chatting with her was nice after having so many crazy things happen in the span of only a few days. Speaking of which, asking about one’s godly parent was an appropriate conversation for demigods, wasn’t it?

           Cathy beamed. “Hermes,” she proudly stated. “I’ve only been here for three weeks, but I think I’m handling being a demigod pretty well.” She paused, then inquired, “You’ve only been here for a couple days, right? Is everything going okay?”

           “This has been by far one of the craziest weeks of my life, but yeah, everything’s fine.”

           Cathy giggled. “Only _one_ of the craziest? But I know what you mean. Demigod life is insane!” A few seconds later, though, the redhead sobered up. “You know…when your little sister got claimed, I’m pretty sure I heard Chiron say her last name was ‘Ross’. And I saw the newspaper article, too, and by any chance, are you guys…?”

            Emma suppressed a groan. She supposed it couldn’t have remained unmentioned forever, but still…”Yes, we’re all related to Morgan and Christina Ross. They’re – uh, they…were our parents.” Unintentionally, the blonde began tearing up and turned away from her companion quickly. Darn it, hadn’t she gotten past this stage already? The teen had stopped having random crying spells days ago…Everything was fine just moments ago, too…”I-I’m sorry…” She mumbled.

           “No, it’s alright. I understand. I shouldn’t have brought that up; I’m the one that should be sorry.” The other female sighed, and they walked in awkward silence for several minutes while Emma attempted to hold back tears. Once she finally recovered, the thirteen-year-old decided to change the subject.

          “Cathy?”

          “Yes?”

           “What’s your favorite color?”

           The other seemed all too happy to move on with her. “Isn’t it obvious?” She grinned and held out a lock of her wavy hair. “Red! I liked it so much that I dyed my hair. What about you?”

           “Hm…Either pink or purple. And blue. And maybe green. And everything sparkly. Oh, and I like red, too. Along with anything that goes with my shoes. I like all the colors!” The two laughed for a while before Emma asked, “So, Cathy? Where did you say you were taking me again?”

           The redhead replied, “The Hephaestus cabin. You didn’t like any of the weapons in the vault, right? Well, the kids in this cabin make new things every day, especially weapons. You’re bound to find one that fits you there.” Upon noticing Emma’s less than thrilled expression, she added, “Hey, cheer up. It won’t be as bad as you think. Besides, you can’t keep using my dagger forever, even if I don’t mind lending it to you every once in a while.” The other female suddenly paused and announced, “Oh, and we’re here.”

           Emma glanced up at the cabin they had stopped in front of. It was the same size as all the others, except it was made of brick and had a chimney pouring smoke sticking out of its roof. The door was large and silver, not much different than a circular vault. Ah, now she remembered it – Travis and Conner had shown them this cabin along with all the others on their tour, but she was never shown inside. She watched as Cathy walked up and knocked on the door. A loud metal _clang_ followed each knock, and within seconds it slid open with a hiss of steam. A girl with dark skin and a red bandana tying her hair back greeted them.

           “Hi, Nyssa!” Cathy said. “We’re here for a weapon!”

           The girl smacked her gum as she observed Emma from head to toe for a moment (which was quite uncomfortable for the blonde). After a second, the female then turned away and gestured for the duo to step inside. “Come in. I have something that might work.”

           Emma and Cathy obeyed. As she trailed behind the other girls a bit, Emma glanced around. This place was larger than it looked on the outside. Several buff boys (and other girls) were forging various weaponry and tack for the pegasai and such. It was really very incredible what they were doing with the metal. Meanwhile, Nyssa led them over towards a specific table within some sort of miniature workshop that was riddled with different gears and contraptions at the back corner of the room.

           “Watch your step. Look out for the wind-up centaur. Gear ship at twelve o’clock.” Nyssa guided them over to the table, stepping over various doohickies and what-nots as she did. At last, they reached their destination unscathed. The Hephaestus girl strolled over to a small box and examined it for a second before extending it to Emma.“Here. Try this.”

           Hesitantly, the blonde reached out and accepted the mystery weapon. She scrutinized the box like Nyssa did, then finally decided to see what was inside. It was far too small to be a sword, bow, gun, or dagger, so what could it possibly be…? The lid came off fully, and she gasped; inside was a gorgeous silver and bronze charm bracelet, including the figures of Pegasus in flight, a lightning bolt, chariot, helmet, centaur, minotaur, and many other shockingly detailed images. It was beautiful, but…

           “Uh, thanks, but how exactly would this help me in a fight…?”

           The taller female smacked her gum again. “Pull on the gold charm.”

           The blonde did, and started when the bracelet suddenly unraveled unto a very long, very thin, and very _sharp_ whip. The one golden charm (the lightning bolt) turned into the handle, and the other various silver and bronze charms had transformed into small, intricate designs that snaked up the sides of the, uh…whip part. All in all, it was beautiful. For a while, Emma was speechless.

           Cathy broke the silence. “Wow! Thanks, Nyssa! That looks great!”

           “Made it m’self,” the girl nodded towards the weapon. “And with that, you don’t have to get super close to any monsters. How does that sound?”

           “It’s wonderful. Thank you.” She still didn’t like the idea of attacking things, but she supposed it was necessary, and it _was_ a nice whip. Maybe Cathy hadn’t been wrong – maybe things wouldn’t be so bad. “I really appreciate it.”

            “No prob. Oh, and that thing has a name – Philia.”

           As the whip turned back into a bracelet that wrapped securely around Emma’s left wrist, the blonde echoed, “Philia?”

           “Yeah, Philia. It’s the Greek term for love. The friendship kind, not romantic.” Nyssa crossed her arms and leaned a shoulder against the wall. “If you have any problems, bring Philia to me for repairs, alright?”

           “Of course. Thanks again!” Emma turned to go, but stopped in her tracks and nearly shrieked in surprise when she noticed a strange reflection in her new bracelet. It looked like a pink light. No, now it was purple. Or was it blue? Slowly, the thirteen-year-old’s eyes trailed from Philia to her own skin. Sure enough, it glowed with a soft multicolored hue.

           She glanced at Cathy, who only grinned widely in response. “Congratulations, Emma. You’re the daughter of Iris, the goddess of rainbows.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another fun fact: Emma's original parent was Aphrodite, but since I'm pretty sure all the other people who did Jessie/PJ crossovers used her as her parent, too (at least this was the case on FF.net), I went with Iris instead. I feel like Iris could match Emma's personality well, too, and I'm fairly sure that she is used as a parent less often than Aphrodite. That way, it doesn't feel so overused. (Also, ever since my friend and I started making "taste the rainbow!" and other Skittles jokes while discussing this, I just had to make Iris Emma's mom. It was too good to pass up. XD) Thanks again for reading, and I hope you all enjoyed it! Have a great day!   
> Chapter word count (not including the author's notes): 3, 277


	6. Chapter 6

            Dinner that night was interesting. The Iris table, Emma learned, was not large. It only had half a dozen members including her, and all of them were friendly (and had an excellent taste in colors, if the outside of their cabin was anything to judge by). Even though she had only just met them a few minutes ago, Emma could tell that they would all get along well.

            Glancing away from her cabin mates, the blonde spotted Zuri over at the Ares table. It seemed like the younger girl had also been accepted relatively quickly by her newfound half-siblings – whatever that initiation thingy entailed, it had worked. The seven-year-old was laughing just as boisterously as the other Ares kids as they cheered on Clarisse and some other kid that were locked in an arm wrestling match. The second the other guy’s arm hit the table (and landed right in someone’s mashed potatoes), the cabin counselor whooped in victory as several of the other Ares kids began shoving each other around in order to be the next one to challenge her. Zuri included. Despite being at least half the size of her other cabin mates, the little girl was determined to be the next one chosen. She was standing on the tips of her toes and stretching her little arms out as far as they would go in an attempt to be noticed from the back of the group. The sight was kind of cute, and Emma giggled softly. As long as they didn’t get too rowdy, it looked like she had nothing to worry about…yet.

            She turned her attention to the Hermes table, which looked crowded as ever. Even though the teen was glad to be sitting in a quieter and more spacious spot, she had to admit she sort of missed the energetic and welcoming vibe that the Hermes kids were so good at giving off. However, she would definitely not miss having to sleep in an overcrowded and shabby cabin, friendly as it was. Or having to practically brush thighs at the table, now that she thought about it. That had been uncomfortable.

            Before long, Emma caught Cathy’s eye, and the redhead beamed and waved at her. Grinning, Emma waved back and glanced around for her two brothers before finally locating them in their usual spot. Luke, ever the charmer (loathe she was to admit it), had quickly gained popularity among the Hermes kids. He was surrounded by a small group of them and was chatting and joking animatedly (and even seemed to be occasionally flirting with a few of the girls). Ravi, on the other hand, sat quietly at the edge of the crowd and only seemed to throw in a comment every once in a while. Despite the difference, both seemed content.

            Emma was interrupted in her thoughts when she heard Butch (the Iris cabin counselor) comment, “Those weird storms are still going on.”

            “What?”

            Butch and some other girl whose name Emma forgot turned towards her. “Didn’t you read the paper from earlier?” Butch asked. At her sheepish shrug, he added, “You know how the world’s weather has been really out of whack recently? Those storms are still going on.”

            “Seriously?” Come to think of it, it _had_ been raining an awful lot during her last few weeks at home. She hadn’t really taken note of it at the time due to the circumstances, but it _was_ pretty abnormal. “Now that you mention it, it’s been really overcast here, too, but we haven’t gotten any rain.”

            “Yeah, that’s because the Golden Fleece protects the camp from bad weather and monsters.” The girl said.

            “Really? I guess that explains why that monster didn’t chase us after we got here.”

            Butch nodded, “Yup. What’s even weirder is that people have been committing a lot more crimes, too. I heard it’s gotten real bad over in Michigan and California.”

            “California?” Emma frowned. “I hope Aunt Cathy is okay…”

            “Oh, don’t worry,” the girl consoled, “I’ll bet she’s fine. If Butch’s grandma can fend for herself, then surely your aunt can. Right, Butch?”

            The larger boy grunted in affirmation. The girl scolded, “ _Words,_ Bubbles. Use words.”

            Butch’s (Bubbles’?) face turned red, and he muttered, “Shut it. And stop using that nickname. It’s stupid.”

            “Aw, what?” Emma giggled, “I think it’s cute.”

            “Shut up.”

* * *

 

            After dinner ended, Emma was promptly led to the Iris cabin by her new half-siblings. The interior was just as tasteful as the blonde had imagined, with every single color complimenting all the others. There were also little art projects, easels, manikins, and other art supplies as far as the eye could see. She believed it might even be better than the Aphrodite cabin. Hey, she was all for frills and pink and that sort of stuff, but even she had to admit that the Aphrodite cabin was a bit much.

            Along each side of the establishment were several cubbyhole-like spaces in the wall that were just wide enough for a person to walk through. Most of the entrances were covered with very well-decorated curtains and had one camper’s name inscribed right above each of them. When Emma glanced through an unguarded one, she was surprised to see that the inside of each was large enough to contain a small bed and a teensy bit of wiggle room. This particular one had various cartoon characters decorating its walls (and a very large Powerpuff girls poster). Emma realized that they served as the Iris kids’ rooms. She guessed being in a smaller cabin really did have its advantages – more privacy, for one.

            “H-Hey!” Butch turned red as a tomato and quickly whipped the room’s curtain closed. “Don’t just stick your nose in other people’s rooms!”

            “ _He’s sensitive about his poster,_ ” Isabel (the girl whom Emma had been talking to earlier) whispered, “ _We found it a few years ago, and we’ve been calling him Bubbles ever since._ ” She and Emma both giggled quietly.

            “Sh-Shut up! Emma, go get your room already!”

            “Huh? But they’re all taken!”

            “Not now, they aren’t.” Isabel pointed to a newly opened gap next to her own room. “The cabin magically extends whenever we need more space. Now get in there and decorate, girl! I’ll get you a name tablet!”

            Before she could argue, the teen found herself tucked away in her own miniature room decorating a small slab of wood with her name engraved on it. It actually felt really nice, as if she was officially becoming a part of the Iris cabin by claiming her own spot. Having a second home after having had her first taken from her was definitely a good feeling. She was already planning how to decorate her wall. There was one spot that was perfect to hang up a picture of her family.

* * *

 

            The next morning, Ravi woke up to the sound of someone shuffling around the cabin. Confused, the ten-year-old cracked an eye open to see Luke of all people dressed and getting his sword and a few snack bars together.

            “ _Luke?_ ” he whispered. His older brother turned around in surprise. “ _What are you doing up?_ ”

            “ _I just need to do something,_ ” Luke responded equally as quietly so not to disturb the other Hermes kids. “ _Go back to sleep._ ”

            “ _What could you possibly need to do at this hour?_ ” The sun wasn’t even up yet! Sure, Ravi was a morning person, but it wasn’t ‘morning’ until at least six thirty! How Luke had managed to drag himself out of bed so early when he struggled to wake himself up in general was beyond Ravi.

            Luke responded, “ _You know how there are monsters in the woods we played Capture the Flag in yesterday?_ ” Of course, out of all the things that Connor and Travis had mentioned while briefing their team, _that_ was what Luke heard.

            “ _Yes…?_ ” Ravi answered hesitantly as he sat up. He didn’t like where this was going.

            “ _I’m gonna go get one._ ”

            “What?!”

            “ _Shh!_ ”

            “ _What are you thinking?!_ ” Ravi said in a sort of whisper-yell.

            “ _If I take down one of those things, I’ll prove my fighting skills.”_ Luke moved to continue getting his stuff together.

_“That is insane! You are going to get yourself hurt!”_

_“No, I won’t,”_ Luke responded, “ _Besides, if they have those things just wandering around, how dangerous could they really be?_ ” The brunette buckled Slicer’s sheath around his belt. “ _Relax, I’ll be fine_.” He moved to pick up the snack bag.

            “ _You cannot seriously be planning to do that alone._ ”

            At that, Luke paused mid-reach. Smirking up at the younger boy, Luke replied, “ _Did I just hear you volunteer?_ ”

            “ _Huh? No, I-_ “

            “ _Oh, okay. Guess I’ll just go monster hunting by myself then~_ ”

            Luke started walking towards the door and Ravi groaned. He had no desire whatsoever to come face to face with yet another monster (especially considering how the last encounter went), but he couldn’t just leave his older brother to wander into those woods alone. He would end up doing something stupid.

            “ _Luke_ ,” he quietly called. The tween paused, and Ravi exasperatedly stated, “ _Fine. I will accompany you. Just let me get dressed._ ”

            The older boy turned around. He was smirking, clearly having expected this. Ravi had a feeling he was going to regret this. The feeling only intensified as the younger boy quickly pulled on the camp uniform, grabbed his bow and arrows, and sneaked out alongside his brother. He just had to open his big mouth, didn’t he? Now here he was going to search for the very thing he did _not_ wish to see since arriving at camp. Stop Luke from doing something idiotic? Ha! Perhaps instead someone should stop _him_ from somehow always assisting in the aforementioned idiocy. Ravi sighed. Yup, he was definitely going to regret this later.

            The two siblings walked in silence for several minutes through the camp. Considering how early it was, it wasn’t surprising that they had yet to see another camper out and about. The sun was just barely peeking over the horizon. Ravi noted to himself that, as long as they returned from their little hunt before breakfast (assuming nothing bad happened, of course, but he didn’t want to think about that), no one would even notice their absence. The ten-year-old wasn’t sure he felt comforted by that fact. But, as long as they didn’t get in trouble, he supposed it would be fine…

            After a while, they were nearly at their destination. Somewhere along the way Luke had gotten one of the granola bars out of the small bag and began munching on it. He offered one to Ravi, who accepted it and did the same. They were at the fencing ground when Luke abruptly stopped walking and said, “Oh, crap.”

            Confused, Ravi asked, “What is wrong?”

            “Let’s go around.”

            “Why?” Over Luke’s shoulder, Ravi spotted someone practicing on one of the dummies a ways off. They were absorbed in their swordplay and hadn’t spotted the two Rosses yet. “Is it because of that person?”

            “Yeah. We don’t want her to see us. Hurry, we need to go around.”

            There were more questions on his mind, but Ravi pushed them aside and silently tailed behind the brunette as they diverted slightly off the main path. They picked up their pace, and it wasn’t long before the two reached the woods. As soon as they stepped foot within the area, both brothers shifted their weapons into a battle-ready position. No telling what might jump out at them. However, once nearly half an hour passed without incident, the two siblings became bored.

            Deciding to satiate his curiosity, Ravi inquired, “So, what happened earlier? Why were you so upset?”

            Luke scowled at the mere mention of it. Still, he replied, “It was nothing. She just would have stopped us if she had seen us.”

            “Is that really all? It seems to be more personal than that.”

            “Well it’s not.” Luke then decided to change the subject. Smirking, he added, “Besides, you need to practice your aiming.”

            “My aim is perfectly fine!” Ravi protested. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t fine, but was pointing that out at a time like this truly necessary?

            “Yeah, sure, ‘cause you totally aimed for Chiron’s butt!”

            Blushing, Ravi argued, “You ruined my shot!”

            “Did I mess up those first twenty shots that you missed? I don’t think so.”

            “Well, what about that fencing match you had? I heard you were easily beaten!”

            Now Luke was embarrassed. “That’s only because she caught me off guard! Otherwise I would’ve won!”

            Ravi was preparing to offer a particularly snarky comeback when a loud roar similar to the Ares kids’ cut him off. Jumping, the two boys swiftly forgot their argument and raised their weapons. Both were aiming them at any direction a sound seemed to come from.

            “L-Luke?”

            “Y…Yeah?”

            “I-Is that y-your monster?”

            “I-“A stick snapped somewhere to Luke’s right, and he whipped Slicer in that direction. “I don’t know!”

            Suddenly, a humungous black mass leaped through the foliage and landed in the clearing with a ferocious snarl. It looked like a very big, very _mean_ wolf. Luke and Ravi screamed and made an attempt to run, but the monster effortlessly leaped over them and blocked their path, cutting off any hope of escape. It then released an ear-splitting screech, revealing long, razor sharp fangs.

            For a second, both brothers could only stare at the creature in terror. Finally, Luke gulped before letting out a fearsome war cry and charging at the giant canine. Ravi tried to follow, but his legs just wouldn’t listen to him. He couldn’t seem to get his hands to cooperate, either – they were shaking so badly that he barely managed to get an arrow out of his quiver.

            Meanwhile, the monster dodged Luke’s initial swing. The freckled tween managed to move out of the way (for the most part) of its swiping claws, but he did get nicked on his right shoulder. Wincing in pain, the twelve-year-old went in to land another blow, but failed to notice the monster shifting so that he was in direct range of its massive jaws.

            Managing to recover his voice, Ravi shouted, “LUKE-“

            The warning came too late. Luke turned around only for the creature to clamp down on his left shoulder. As its fangs tore into his body, the brunette screamed in pain and allowed himself to be slammed into the ground. Slicer slipped from his grip in the struggle.

            Ravi’s scream died in his throat when the monster finished and turned in his direction. He fumbled with his bow and tried to point it in the creature’s direction, but a sudden wave of nausea undermined his efforts. The wolf narrowed its blood red eyes at the smaller boy. Ravi panicked. It lunged, and _oh gods he was going to die Luke was dead and he would be too oh gods-_

Except the beast shrieked and exploded into dust right before it could reach him. Dumbfounded, Ravi could only watch for several moments as the ash faded, revealing the girl they had seen earlier standing behind it. Megan was panting, her sword shaking in her trembling hands.

* * *

 

            It hurt. Oh, how it hurt. Luke was only half conscious, but the sharp pain and stickiness radiating from his body made him wish he was still completely knocked out. He moaned, and gradually he became more aware of his surroundings. Someone sounded like they were having trouble breathing, and someone else was coaxing a liquid that tasted like spaghetti for some reason down his throat. He swallowed, and instantly the pain seemingly melted away. His surroundings were no longer hazy and the tween glanced up to see his younger brother’s tear-streaked face staring worriedly down at him. Upon seeing Luke regain consciousness, Ravi shakily smiled and gently embraced the older boy in relief. Luke groggily returned the hug, happy that his younger sibling and friend was okay. However, the sound of someone clearing their throat caused him to let go of Ravi and look in the direction of the sound. What greeted his vision was very possibly one of his _least_ favorite people.

            Meeting Megan’s glare, Luke stood up (ignoring the brief lightheadedness he felt) and commented, “What’s your problem?”

            “You two are idiots,” the girl simply growled. “You have _no_ experience whatsoever, and yet you decide to go after a _hellhound?_ ” Angrily, she put away a small vile of golden liquid that Luke just noticed and snatched Siren’s Song up from the leaf-covered forest floor.

            While Ravi winced at her tone, Luke replied, “Well, what about you? Do you always stalk other people?”

            “Are you always this ungrateful when other people save your sorry butt?” Megan retorted.

            “We were _fine._ ”

            Shrugging, Megan sheathed her sword. “Keep telling yourself that. It might even come true.”

            “I-“

            “Thank you,” Ravi cut Luke off, bowing slightly, “For saving us.” The younger boy shot his older brother a meaningful look, and Luke growled before practically stomping off to retrieve his fallen weapon. He swore under his breath, this girl was even better than Emma at ticking him off…

            He found Slicer and picked it up, all while still grating his teeth in frustration. This was the second time that he had been embarrassed. Second! He was still seething when something in the reflection of his blade caught his attention.

            He was glowing.

            Like, seriously glowing green. With a symbol of two snakes intertwined rotating above his head. He remembered Connor and Travis mentioning this particular one. He was interrupted from his thoughts by Megan’s voice.

            “That’s the symbol of Hermes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me so long to update, guys, but school was really hectic these last few months. '^^ Anyway, here's the update, so please enjoy!


	7. Chapter 7

            It took Luke and Ravi a full hour to sneak back to the Hermes cabin unnoticed and switch out Luke’s bloodied clothes for clean ones. By the time all was said and done and the soiled clothing was firmly tucked in the cabin’s laundry bin (hidden underneath all the other dirty clothes), it was nearly time for breakfast and most of the other Hermes kids were up and getting ready. While Luke passed the time fiddling with somebody’s old gameboy (it seemed ‘Lost and Found’ translated to ‘free for public use’ in the Hermes cabin), Ravi silently watched from the bed. The raven-haired boy was having trouble keeping his eyes open; it wasn’t that he was _tired_ per say, it was more like the adrenaline from earlier was just now exiting his system. He didn’t understand how Luke was still fully awake, especially considering the older boy had been up before him. Then again, maybe near death experiences tended to do that to people.

            Speaking of which, his older brother was being awfully calm about the entire thing. Sure, he had been angry when Megan had rescued them, but beyond that, Luke didn’t seem at all bothered by the fact that he had nearly died – _would_ have died if Megan hadn’t arrived just in the nick of time. Perhaps Luke was in some sort of shock? The whole ordeal still felt a bit surreal even to Ravi; it was like it belonged in a dream. However, it had definitely happened. Luke possessed the scars to prove it, no matter how thin and faded they had already become. The images of them had been seared into Ravi’s memory when his older brother was changing shirts.

            He was so stupid. He could have prevented those marks. He could have talked Luke out of going on some dumb, impromptu monster hunt, or actually managed to help protect him, but what had he done? Stood in place and quivered like a leaf while his brother fought. Another one of his family members could have been _killed_ because of his own incompetence. He was so stupid.

            And yet, Ravi still lacked the bravery to apologize to Luke. For the next few minutes, the ten-year-old could only stare guiltily at the Pokémon battle occurring on the small screen over Luke’s shoulder – the same one with the fading scars. _Thank the gods for Megan,_ Ravi thought to himself tiredly.

            “I am sorry…” he found himself saying just loudly enough for only Luke to hear. The older boy inclined his head towards his younger brother in confusion.

            “Huh? What for?” Before Ravi could answer him, Travis and Conner came bursting through the cabin door (and miraculously managed not to forcibly start any impromptu make out sessions between an unlucky camper and the door this time).

            “Rise and shine, folks!” They shouted. One guy who had still been asleep was startled awake by their entrance and fell out of his bunk. Ravi felt kind of sorry for him. The two cabin counselors, though, paid the guy little mind as they continued their morning routine.

            “Okay, guys, breakfast is in five minutes! We all need to be ready to go by then – no exceptions!” Conner noticed Luke and Ravi over by their bunk and said, “Hey, you guys were up early; I didn’t see either of you in here or at the training area when I went by it this morning. Mind telling me where you were?”

            “Uh, you know, just…around.” Luke vaguely replied. He set the gameboy on his bed and hopped up as he changed the subject. “Hey, know what?”

            “I don’t know,” Travis replied. “What?”

            “You got a new Hermes kid.”

            The twins’ faces broke into huge grins once they realized what he meant. “Whoa, dude, you got claimed? That’s awesome!”

            “Hey, guys!” Travis yelled to the other Hermes kids, “We’ve got another member!” Within seconds, over a dozen kids were crowded around the bunk, and Luke was surrounded. Ravi barely managed to slip out of the circle in time. “You know what this means, right?” Travis mischievously asked Luke.

            “Uh-“

            “INITIATION TIME!” The Hermes kids shouted. Immediately, Luke was swallowed up in a sea of arms and disappeared almost completely under all the noogies. Any protests he might have been making went unheard over all of the racket his newfound half-siblings were producing.

            Quietly, Ravi attempted to move past the miniature mob, but Conner noticed the younger boy before he could reach the cabin door and called, “Hey, Ravi, did you get claimed, too?”

            The ruckus around them didn’t die down any, but somehow Ravi still felt as if all eyes were on him as he responded, “Um, no, not yet.”

            “Oh, well that’s okay.” Conner glanced at the clock on the wall and elbowed Travis, who after noticing the time dispersed the crowd surrounding Luke. The brunette rolled back onto his bed, his hair a mess and a goofy grin on his face.

            “Okay, folks! Time to leave!” The twins began ushering everyone out of the cabin. “Move it, let’s go!”

            As they walked along to the dining area, Luke ran his hands through his hair in an attempt to fix it. It wasn’t working. “Hey, Rav,” he stated.

            “Yes?”

            Luke finally gave up on trying to restore his former hairdo; there was still a rather obvious lock that just wouldn’t lie flat. “I almost forgot about earlier; what were you sorry about?”

            “Oh, I…” Ravi looked down towards the ground. “Nothing. It was nothing.”

            For a split second, Luke was uncharacteristically silent, giving Ravi the impression that he hadn’t believed him. But just when the younger boy worried his brother would pursue the issue further, one of the Hermes kids shouted in Luke’s direction and got his attention. The freckled tween promptly forgot all about the previous chat he had been having and jogged up ahead to join the growing cluster of Hermes kids loudly joking around and playfully shoving each other. Ravi continued to trail several feet behind the group and observe their antics. Within two minutes, Luke was already the center of attention, effortlessly conversing and horsing around with all his half-siblings and generally being charming as ever. It made Ravi feel lonely…and a bit envious.

            Not for the first time, he wished he had the social skills his adoptive siblings possessed. They just always made everything look so _easy,_ like they never even had to put in any genuine effort for others to like them. They were nothing like Ravi, who seemed to frighten away any potential friends either by the lack of his own social skills or by simply being _him_ (to be honest, he was never entirely certain). In fact, it was a good thing he _did_ have his brother and sisters, otherwise the ten-year-old might not have had anymore companions left in the world, especially now that he could no longer see Mr. Kipling.

            At the thought of his old reptilian friend, Ravi shrunk a little deeper into himself. He hadn’t been permitted to bring Mr. Kipling with him to Aunt Carrie’s home, so the lizard had to be donated to a zoo days before the subway incident. Chances were he would never see him ever again. Simply imagining it made the ten-year-old start to tear up. Mr. Kipling was irreplaceable; how was he supposed to make another best friend? Would he even be able to do that?

            Ravi quickly wiped his eyes before any tears had the chance to fall. Though he’d yet to have anyone pick on him in this place, it wouldn’t do to be caught publicly crying. It rarely led to anything positive, and he would prefer to still have the chance to make friends besides his adoptive siblings.

            Up ahead, Luke spun around and waved in Ravi’s direction, grinning wildly. Not wishing to ruin his brother’s fun, the ten-year-old smiled and returned the gesture before walking a bit faster to catch up. The least he could do was look like a part of the group.

* * *

 

            At breakfast, the Ares table was quiet. Well, as quiet as they possibly could be, anyway. Snickers were managing to escape the mouths of several of the kids, but that was expected. Zuri simply tuned it all out and kept her eyes trained on her target.

            Said target, some poor Aphrodite kid, was completely oblivious to the pair of eyes nearly burning a hole in the back of her head. She was too busy focusing on arranging the hash browns on her plate into a nice bunny shape. To be honest, it didn’t look that great. Luckily, Zuri intended to fix that.

            From her spot at the Ares table, the seven-year-old waited for the perfect moment to strike. Her slingshot was carefully trained upon the offending plate, a gravy-soaked biscuit serving as the ammo. From all around her, her half-siblings continued to quietly snicker, eagerly anticipating what was to soon follow.

            Finally, Zuri got a clear path and fired. The soggy biscuit sailed through the air and landed directly on the Aphrodite girl’s dish, causing the hash brown bunny to violently splatter and the ketchup next to it to spurt into her face. All chatter at her table came to a sudden halt as her siblings turned to look at the girl in a kind of horrified surprise. The girl, meanwhile, wiped at her face. When her napkin came away with more than just ketchup, she gasped.

            “MY MAKEUP!” she screeched, “It’s ruined!”

            While the rest of the Aphrodite kids started consoling her over her terrible loss, the Ares kids couldn’t hold their chuckles back anymore and finally burst into full blown guffaws. The looks on those kids’ faces had just been too priceless. Zuri quickly stashed away her slingshot before any of the Aphrodite kids could see and grinned in victory. Success!

            While most of the other campers watching the scene laughed, a few glares were shot in the Ares table’s general direction. However, none were indicating anyone had witnessed Zuri commit the prank. Victorious, the young girl turned back towards her breakfast and gleefully ate. Today was going to be a good day. She just knew it.

* * *

 

            As soon as breakfast ended, Zuri ran to locate her siblings. After spotting the three of them walking towards the cabins together, she scurried over and got their attention.

            “Hey, check it out!” She held her slingshot (which was still a bit goopy from the gravy) up towards them victoriously, declaring, “I learned a lot about using my weapon! Rissi taught me!”

            “Rissi…?” Emma wondered out loud.

            “Oh, do you mean Clarisse?” Ravi asked.

            “Yup!” Zuri nodded enthusiastically. “She taught me different ways to shoot and how to throw a spear and use a shield to attack and everything!”

            “Cool!” Luke took the small weapon from his younger sister before pulling the hand touching it away and wiping it on the side of his pants (making Ravi cringe in disgust). “Gross, what’s on it?”

            Emma observed the slingshot before saying, “Is that gravy? Wait, were you the one who almost hit that Aphrodite girl at breakfast?” Upon the younger girl’s proud nod, she huffed, “That wasn’t very nice.”

            “What? It wasn’t like she was hurt or anything; I was careful. It was a good shot, too! Besides, they’re the ones always going around talking behind peoples’ backs!”

            “That’s not the point,” Emma argued. “You shouldn’t just go around-“

            Before the blonde could finish her sentence, the door of the cabin they were walking by opened and Emma was forced to step back in order to avoid being hit in the face for the second time in only two days. Zuri giggled at the sight before her attention was caught by the person exiting the building.

            “Oh wow, sorry. Didn’t see you there,” A red-haired girl apologized as soon as she noticed Emma.

            “It’s fine,” replied Emma, hiding her irritation from nearly getting smacked again as she regarded the new arrival. “Anyway, I don’t think we’ve met.”

            “We haven’t,” The girl confirmed. “My name’s Rachel, and…” she eyed the four kids in front of her. “Hey, aren’t you guys the Rosses? I’ve seen you around here a couple times, but we never had the chance to chat.”

            “Yeah, we are,” Emma replied.

            “That’s so cool! I was a huge fan of your dad’s movies until he-“ The redhead paused before saying, “Sorry. Anyway, I do know you guys are pretty new here and that one of you got claimed during the last Capture the Flag game.”

            “Yup! It was me! My dad’s Ares!” Zuri chirped.

            “Yeah, I’ve been claimed, too,” Luke winked flirtatiously at Rachel, earning him an unimpressed stare and three other exasperated ones. “I’m an official Hermes kid.”

            Ravi stayed silent.

            “Really?” Emma asked. “When did that happen?”

            “This morning.”

            “Oh, okay,” The thirteen-year-old turned back to Rachel before continuing, “And I’m the daughter of Iris. Who’s your parent, Rachel? Is this their cabin?”

            Rachel shook her head. “Oh, I’m not a demigod. I’m just a regular mortal. I am the Oracle, though, so I’m allowed to stay here. I just like to visit the different cabins sometimes. This one belongs to the goddess of heaven.”

            “Goddess of heaven?” Asked Zuri.

            Rachel nodded, “Yeah, you know, Hera. The peacock lady. She doesn’t have any demigod children. Speaking of which…” The redhead eyed the group in front of her curiously. “You guys were all adopted into the same family, right?”

            “Yeah, why?” Luke responded.

            “Something wrong with that?” Zuri prodded.

            “No. It’s just that it’s unusual for one family to have more than one demigod in it, much less four different adopted ones. …Actually, I think that last part is unheard of. That can’t be a coincidence – the gods are often up to something in cases like that.”

            “So…what you’re sayin’ is that we’re something special.” Zuri thoughtfully mused.

            “Possibly,” Rachel replied, “Then again, who knows? Maybe it could really be just a-“ Abruptly, she stopped, eyes staring straight forward in a strange fashion.

            “Rachel…?” Emma shook the other girl’s shoulder after a few seconds silence. “Rachel, are you okay?” Zuri and her two other siblings surrounded their fellow camper. Despite all of their concerned questions and nudges, Rachel remained static and silent.

            All of a sudden, green smoke escaped from Rachel’s mouth and surrounded her and the Rosses. Alarmed, they stepped back, only to realize the camp around them had seemingly melted away. All that remained was an endless white void occupied solely by the four siblings and Rachel, whose emerald eyes had brightened with an eerie glow. Slowly, Rachel moved, regarding each of the Ross kids in turn before her gaze landed on Luke and she spoke:

_From the ashes new heroes shall rise_

            This voice wasn’t Rachel’s. It was deep and gravelly, like it was coming from the throat of a centuries-old smoker. She continued to Zuri:

_To search for the cause of love’s demise;_

She turned towards Ravi, who shrunk back slightly in fear:

_Through sacrifice, a high price shall be paid._

            She glanced at Emma, and the blonde sucked in a nervous breath:

_With trust, you must obtain the daughter’s aid._

            To all of them, she concluded:

_A devastating truth shall come to light,_

_And with it the flames of hatred will ignite._

            After that final utter, the entire spectacle ended as soon as it started, with Rachel nearly collapsing to the ground gasping. After regaining their senses and realizing they were back in Camp Half-Blood, the Rosses rushed to help the redhead back to her feet.

            “Wha…What just happened?” Emma inquired once the other girl steadied herself on her feet.

            “A prophecy just happened,” Rachel replied. “Come on, we need to get Chiron.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, guys! Guess who updated in a reasonable amount of time! That’s right – not me! 8p Sorry for the wait. Anyway, during the ridiculous length of time it took me to finally update, I managed to pass Chemistry (miraculously without blowing anything or anyone up), got my own car (I named it Shakira because those hips don’t lie), got a part-time job (although we’ll see how that goes because I have terrible social skills), got a boyfriend (yeah, I don’t know how that happened, either – see my previous point), and got accepted into the university I want to go to (and its color guard). So, y’know, at least my absence wasn’t completely wasted. Somehow. Anyway, I hope everything is going well with all of you. Thanks for putting up with my inconsistency, reading and reviewing! Enjoy!


	8. Chapter 8

            Over in the Big House, Chiron absently gazed into the empty fireplace, thoughtfully mulling over the prophecy as the cabin counselors and Rosses looked on from their spots around the table. Everything was quiet sans the sounds of occasional whispers exchanged between the campers and Mr. D carelessly yawning and fidgeting with a can of Diet Coke. From his seat in between Ravi and Zuri, Luke impatiently tapped his fingers on the table. What were Chiron and all the counselors even thinking? And what the heck was a prophecy anyway?! In the rush of the whole ordeal with Rachel, no one had bothered to explain what was going on.

            The relative silence lasted for several more minutes before Chiron finally turned around and asked, “You have told me everything?”

            “Yes,” answered Rachel.

            “And it was indeed the Rosses to whom this prophecy was directed?” Rachel nodded. Chiron hummed in thought and turned towards the fireplace again. “So it is…”

            “But that’s ridiculous!” One of the counselors burst out. “They haven’t even been here for a full three days!”

            “They wouldn’t last a day out there!” Another added. More protests swiftly followed, meshing together until they were virtually indistinguishable from one another. This went on until Chiron firmly planted a front hoof on the ground.

            “Enough!” Once all eyes were trained on him, the centaur continued, “As you all know, lately there has been much tension in the world. The weather patterns are abnormal and crime rates have been rising, especially in major urban areas. Put all of these incidents and the gods’ recent silence into consideration and it becomes clear that there is discord in Olympus.”

            “Discord in Olympus…?” Emma wondered. “Wait, so the gods are fighting?”

            “Why would they do that?” asked Zuri.

            “Honestly, there’s always a little bit of arguing and infighting going on, but it’s never to this extent,” one of the older counselors (Luke thought someone had called her Annabeth before) replied. “For it to have this much of an effect, it’s got to be pretty serious.”

            Travis started, “But we don’t know why they’re upset-“

            “-Since they won’t communicate with us.” finished Conner.

            “Really?” Inquired Emma in surprise, “Nothing at all?”

            “Nothing other than claiming their children,” confirmed Annabeth, “And now we have this prophecy.”

            “But you guys are _way_ too inexperienced to go on a quest.” A counselor Luke didn’t know the name of commented. The other counselors all nodded and murmured in agreement, sparking a bit of frustration within Luke. All this prophecy mumbo-jumbo and the lack of explanations were seriously beginning to grate on his nerves.

           “Whoa, hold on,” he said, all eyes turning towards him, “You keep saying all this stuff about a prophecy, but you never said what any of this was.”

            Chiron answered, “A prophecy was what you and your siblings experienced with Rachel moments ago. Simply put, it is a foretelling of events that are soon to occur. They may be independent of the gods’ will and guide demigods on their quests to set matters right,” The centaur scanned the four children sitting across from him before adding, “Under normal circumstances, the demigod recipient of the prophecy would select two companions and set off upon his journey, but seeing as the four of you have received it…”

            “You’re just not ready,” surmised Travis.

            “But it’s our prophecy, right?” Zuri asked, standing up from her chair. “So if that’s the case, then we should be the ones to go on the quest.”

            Emma began to warn, “Zuri…” but was cut off as Luke chimed in.

            “Yeah, it sounds cool.”

            “Are you serious?!” Emma asked, “Did you forget how we got here in the first place? That…that _thing_ chased us here and could have killed us! What happened to staying away from that?”

            “It might still be looking for us,” Ravi added.

            “Yeah, and your point?” Zuri retorted, “We can fight it off now.”

            “Can you really?” cut in a very familiar voice. Luke scowled as Megan continued, “With what knowledge? You guys have only just started training and you’ve never been in a real fight. You wouldn’t stand a chance against an actual monster.”

            Luke tried to ignore the fact that the last part seemed to have been directed at him and Ravi. He opened his mouth to form a retort (and to mention that he and Ravi had done pretty good against that hellhound for their first very real fight, _thank you very much_ ), but quickly shut it after remembering that that particular escapade was supposed to remain a secret.

            “But we can learn!” Zuri protested.

            “In just a few days?” Travis incredulously replied.

            “Definitely not.” Conner concluded.

            “It’s too dangerous,” Another counselor voiced.

            Others chimed in with, “They wouldn’t know what they’re doing.”

            “Do they even know how to swing a sword? Or anything?”

            “They’d be dead in no time flat.”

            “Are you guys even aware of where Olympus is?”

            “They can’t go.”

            “They’re not ready.”

            Once the voices died down, Chiron asked, “Are all in agreement?”

            The counselors all nodded, and Annabeth said, “We’ll send someone else. The Rosses just aren’t ready yet.”

            “But it’s-“ Chiron placed a hand on Zuri’s shoulder, effectively silencing the seven-year-old.

            “Then it is settled,” he stated. “The Rosses shall remain here at camp.” Zuri moved to protest once more, but a gentle squeeze on the shoulder prevented her from doing so. “Your time will come,” Chiron assured her, “But that time is not now. In the meantime…” the centaur was once again addressing the entire room, “We must decide who to send off on the quest. Zuri, Emma, Luke, Ravi…” The centaur patted Zuri on the shoulder before removing his hand. “You may return to your activities at this time. Only camp counselors are permitted in this decision. Train hard, and thank you for your time.” With that, the Ross family was escorted outside and instructed to return to their previous tasks.

            As soon as they were several yards away from the building and the door from which they exited shut, Zuri crossed her arms and huffed, “Jerks! That wasn’t fair at all!”

            “What are you talking about?” Emma told her younger sister, “That was totally fair. They’re right – we _don’t_ have any experience. We’d just get hurt.”

            “But it’s our quest!” Zuri retorted. “They even said so!”

            “Chiron said it was our prophecy,” Ravi gently corrected from his spot beside her, “…but it is not our quest.”

            “It was until they took it from us!”

            “They didn’t even think we might be able to do it,” Luke agreed, kicking the grass at his feet (he really hoped there weren’t any grass dryads to get mad at him) in irritation. Seriously, the camp counselors could have at _least_ given them the benefit of the doubt. Sure, Ravi’s archery sucked and Luke had yet to see Emma use her weapon, but they could’ve at least let him and Zuri go!

            “Are you guys for real?” Emma huffed in frustration. “’Cool’? ‘Our quest’? You’ve got to be kidding me! You guys are delusional!”

            “But-“

            “No, stop it! We’re not going, okay? Just drop it already.”

            Zuri pouted, but didn’t argue further.

* * *

 

            The next morning, the Ross kids stood aside and watched as three other campers (three people whom they did not recognize) said their farewells to Chiron and exited Camp Half-Blood, backpacks chock full with supplies and weapons at their sides. Zuri stood between her two brothers, still silently fuming over the previous day. How dare the counselors give their quest to somebody else! She was going to miss out on all the action! Forget her sissy siblings – the girl’s sling shot was revving to go kick some serious monster butt. Who was everyone else to try to stop her? From beside her, Luke caught her eye and grinned mischievously. Zuri returned the look, knowing what her older brother had in his diabolical little brain. After all, great minds thought alike.

            On Zuri’s other side, Ravi must have noticed the duo’s shared glance and he warned, “Do not even think about it.”

            “Think about what?” Zuri asked innocently, sweetly cocking her head to the side like a curious puppy.

            The ten-year-old huffed, “Do not feign cluelessness; you know what I mean.”

            “Bro, we’ve got no idea what you’re talking about,” Luke replied.

            “Guys, we know you’re planning something,” Emma finally interjected. “Stop it right now. You _know_ that it’s dangerous out there. What do you not understand about us not being ready?”

            “But we are ready!” Zuri protested. “We’re as ready as we’ll ever be. Why should we stay cooped up here?”

            “Because it’s safe!” Emma stated.

            Luke retorted, “We’re demigods now. It’s not safe for us _anywhere._ We’re going to have to leave this place at some point anyway. Let’s just get that part over with now.”

            “I can’t believe you two!” Emma exclaimed. “You guys are crazy!”

            “Not any worse than you!” Zuri shot back. “At least we’re not a couple of big scaredy-cats!”

            Luke added, “Yeah, don’t drag the rest of us down with you!”

            Fuming, Emma crossed her arms and shook her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe you two,” she repeated.

            From his spot (where he had been anxiously fidgeting throughout the entire ordeal), Ravi quietly added, “It is not worth the risk…I do not want to lose any more family members…” At that, Luke and Zuri both quieted and stared down at the ground guiltily. How were they supposed to argue with that? Upon glancing back up, Zuri could see Emma worrying her bottom lip nervously, all fight having left the blonde girl. Zuri sighed.

            “…Fine,” the seven-year-old conceded. “We won’t go.”

            Ravi quit fidgeting and focused hopefully on his younger sister. “You will not?”

            “No, we won’t.” Zuri grumbled. “Are you happy now?” Ravi only beamed and nodded. Realizing the smile was genuine, the girl couldn’t help but return it. Next to Ravi, Emma released a sigh of relief. Even Luke seemed to relax the growing tension in his posture a tad bit. However, the peaceful sibling moment ended when a bizarre glint caught Zuri’s eye.

            Upon stepping back a few steps and realizing where it was originating from, the seven-year-old stated, “You’re getting claimed.”

            “Who, me?” Ravi glanced down at his hands, only to discover that Zuri was correct. A deep violet glow radiated from his caramel skin. Above his head rotated the golden symbol of a key.

            “So…who is it?” Luke inquired.

            “I…I do not know,” Ravi responded, brown eyes still intently trained upon the emblem. “Something about it seems familiar, though.”

            “I know who it is,” came Chiron’s voice all of a sudden. Zuri jumped and spun around to face the centaur, who offered her a courteous smile as he approached the second-youngest Ross child. Sheesh, how long had the guy been standing there?

Any campers within the vicinity paused and watched as Chiron gently held up Ravi’s arm, announcing, “Hail Ravi Ross, son of Hecate, the goddess of magic.”

* * *

 

            “This is so sweet!” Lou Ellen, the Hecate Cabin’s counselor, exclaimed that same night, her vivid emerald green eyes glittering. “We hardly ever get any new members, much less boys!”

            From his place across from her on one of the cabin beds, Ravi asked, “Really? Why is that?”

            “It can take a lot of energy to cast spells, and girls just have more of it for whatever reason, so they’re more common.” The older girl shrugged casually. “I think it has something to do with how girls are the ones who are able to have the babies. Creating life and all that jazz. But hey, what do I know?”

            Ravi nodded and gazed again at his surroundings. On the outside, the Hecate Cabin was covered with pinkish round stones rumored to turn everyone within a mile of it into a tree if one ever came loose and dropped (whomever made _that_ brilliant design choice needed to be fired as soon as humanly possible, for everyone’s sakes). The interior, however, was very homey, albeit a tad strange. (Then again, considering what their mother was the goddess of, that was sort of to be expected.) The beds and bathrooms were normal enough (if the fact that they straightened themselves up and that the beds allegedly greeted their owners in the morning when they woke up could be considered ‘normal’), but the walls of the cabin were lined with shelves complete with countless books. The raven-haired boy could only assume they were all magic tomes. He wondered how he would ever find time to read them all. Near the back of the cabin were various tables, cooking or glassware, and cupboards full of bizarre ingredients and other oddities. On one of the tables sat a small cauldron bubbling with some sort of purple liquid. What purpose that particular concoction was intended to serve, Ravi wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

            His designated bed was the one nearest to the door of the cabin. It wasn’t large by any means, but roomy enough to comfortably hold his small frame. Underneath the frame sat a shallow box, perfect for stowing away any possessions (not that Ravi really had any at the moment) that otherwise would end up strewn about the cabin floor. To put it frankly, the ten-year-old liked this place more than his previous on already – it was _so_ much cleaner and nowhere near as crowded. There were only six campers total (including Lou Ellen and himself) in the Hecate Cabin.

            “Hey, show us your wand!” One of his half-siblings, a young Asian girl who looked to be about six, urged. Her twin sister nodded enthusiastically.

            “My wand…?”

            “Yeah, your wand! I wanna see it!” The rest of the cabin chimed in in a chorus of agreement. They all looked so eager.

            Hesitantly, Ravi replied, “Uh, I would love to, however, I do not have-“

            “Oh, wait, that’s right!” Lou Ellen hopped up from her seat on the edge of her bed. “You already have a weapon, don’t you?”

            “Er…yes, that is correct,” The raven-haired child carefully picked up the bow and arrow sling from where they had been leaning against the wall next to his bed. He lifted them up for his half-siblings to see. “Truthfully, though, I am quite inept at using it. I might as well not even have one.”

            “Well, no duh, Sherlock.”

            Ravi blinked at the counselor in confusion. “I…beg your pardon?”

            “We’re witches,” Lou Ellen responded. When Ravi’s bewildered expression didn’t go anywhere, she sighed and explained, “Basically, we’re magicians. We aren’t really built to wield most of the weapons other demigods use. I mean, we _can_ use them if we want to, but it’s much easier for us to stick with staves and things like that.”

            “Oh,” Ravi eyed the bow in his hand. Somehow, what Lou Ellen said seemed to explain a lot.

            “Actually, here,” The older girl said, extending her arms out, “Give me your weapon.” The ten-year-old obeyed, and stepped back when he was told to do so. Grinning, Lou Ellen turned her attention towards the weapon in her hands and uttered some sort of incantation. Amazed, Ravi watched as a faint, shimmery cloud encompassed his bow and masked it until it was completely hidden from view. Its silhouette began to shift, and within seconds the soft glow dispersed, revealing an ebony staff. Lou Ellen (with that mischievous grin still in place) handed the weapon back to him, and as soon as he got over the spectacle, Ravi accepted it and looked it over. The staff was around seven feet tall with a sort of hollowed out diamond-shaped spiral tip. Besides the aforementioned tip, the weapon was plain and unassuming, containing no elaborate designs or engravings. Eventually, Ravi looked back up towards his cabin counselor.

            “Thank you,” he smiled.

            “Hey, it’s not done yet,” Lou Ellen retorted. The black-haired teen sat back on her bed and casually crossed her legs. “You still need to cast your first spell.”

            “I…what?” Ravi stuttered. “Already? Do I not require more instruction first?”

            The counselor only waved her hand at his concerns. “Relax, this one’s easy. All you need to do is wrap your hand around your wand’s tip…yeah, that’s it…now concentrate and say, ‘ _Sas díno méros apó ména_ ’.” Clearly, Ravi repeated the words, and gasped when he felt a sharp pinch in his chest. He nearly dropped the staff, but before he could, Lou Ellen urged, “Keep holding on. It’ll be over soon.” The other Hecate kids chimed in with their encouragement.

            Several minutes passed, and Ravi held on. It wasn’t painful so much as it was tiring; It was as if his very energy was being sucked out of him by an unseen force. Finally, the sensation stopped, and Ravi shakily sat down on his bed. A protein shake was hastily offered to him by the only other boy in the cabin, and the ten-year-old accepted it, too exhausted to question it.

            “The first few times are always the hardest,” Lou Ellen explained as Ravi drunk. “You need to keep your strength up. Magic is fueled by your energy, so you need to eat, drink, and sleep plenty to help keep yourself healthy. Most importantly,” she stressed this last part, “ _Do not take things too quickly._ Magicians, especially new ones, need to pace themselves in order to build up a resistance to the magic’s effects. If you aren’t careful, you’ll use up too much energy, and in extreme cases you’ll die. No amount of ambrosia or nectar can save you then. So just be careful, okay?”

            Ravi glanced at his staff, which now had a glimmering white diamond encased in its tip – his own life energy, a name tag of sorts. Tiredly, he looked back up at Lou Ellen and nodded. The other Hecate kids cheered and she grinned once more.

            “Welcome to the Hecate Cabin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! Guess what? On June 16th, I graduated from high school! I’ve been wanting to pursue English as a major since it’s really the only thing I’m decent at doing, but I’m not super optimistic about my chances of actually making a living with that, so…I guess we’ll see how that goes. Anyway, my next update might be from college, although if it is, it might take me a while to figure everything out and actually get the darn update posted. Anyway, thanks for reading, and please, please leave a review! Feedback is my kryptonite! Thank you!   
> Oh, and the Greek phrase in this was supposed to mean, “I give you part of me.” However, seeing as I don’t know Ancient Greek and therefore used Google Translate, the accuracy of it is debatable. In other words, take every single spell used in this with a grain of salt. Actually, scratch that, a whole tub of salt, because there’s a 99% chance that the translations will be inaccurate. So, just don’t quote me on any of these, okay? Also, I thought of giving Zuri Hecate as a parent and to have Ravi’s parent be Ares just for the shock value, but in the end I decided to just go with what already had. I know Hecate is kind of a weird choice for Ravi, but whatever. Okay, this note is really long, so I’ll just end it here. Go Class of 2017!!!


	9. Chapter 9

           A week passed since the team of demigods’ departure, and not a peep was heard from them since. At least, not one that managed to reach Zuri’s ears. Not that it mattered much to her, though – she was mainly focusing on everything her older half-brothers and sisters were teaching her. It was kind of funny; Zuri had always struggled in school, but not because she was stupid (she wasn’t Luke). Half the stuff they were supposed to learn never held her interest, so the little girl never paid much mind to it. But this, what her cabin mates were teaching her now, was what kept her engaged. How to use a spear, how to block, how to stay alive in a fight… _this_ was the important stuff. In the end, it all boiled down to listening to her gut instincts. Long division wouldn’t save anyone from the jaws of a hungry monster.

            Eagerly, the little girl continued to learn, although today the lesson was rapidly devolving into a hardcore wrestling match. What had started out as a simple demonstration on how to keep a monster in a headlock (how Clarisse expected anyone to actually use that technique was a mystery, but it was still neat) had gone downhill and spiraled into a cabin-wide showdown. Two lamps were already broken, and junk was strewn all over the floor around the giant dogpile beginning to form in the middle of it all. Zuri sagely ducked behind a bed to avoid being yanked in. As much as she enjoyed brawling, she really wasn’t in the mood to get squashed by the ridiculously huge brutes she called her siblings (and especially not when they all just had breakfast; thanks, but no thanks). She wasn’t against cheering on Clarisse, though.

            Just when the show was getting good, however, thunder boomed overhead, loud enough to nearly shake the ground and startle everyone out of their activities. A bad feeling rushed over Zuri like a bucket full of freezing water. She couldn’t really explain it, but judging by the looks on many of the other Ares kids’ faces, they were experiencing the same. Together, as if they were of the same mind, they rose and filed outside to join the growing crowd of campers standing around the cabins and gazing warily up at the sky. It was dark, far darker than it had been mere minutes ago. Sure, it was overcast even during breakfast, but now the sky looked as if soot had been tossed into it and coated all the clouds. Thunder and lightning continued to dance across the heavens all the while. Then, Zuri felt a wet drop on her face, and then several more after it. Even more followed after that until it was full on raining. Alarmed whispers and voices began passing through the crowd of demigods – something was wrong, very wrong. Somehow, through the shower and large group, Zuri managed to catch each of her adoptive siblings’ eyes. They needed to talk.

            By midday, the magic of the Golden Fleece had somehow been strengthened and the foul weather was once more kept at bay. However, it did nothing to halt the rumors and speculations travelling throughout the camp. According to most, rumor had it that the previous phenomenon was a sign that something had happened to the group of demigods sent out on the quest the week before. As far as Zuri was concerned, the whole thing was definitely suspicious. At the mostly cleared-out dining area, the little girl and her siblings sat at the Iris table (which had a heck of a lot less gum stuck to the bottom of it than the Hermes or Ares table had; Emma was probably thrilled to bits about that), alternating between reading through the most recently delivered newspaper and glancing warily up at the sky as if it was going to suddenly turn pitch black again and strike them all down with lightning. Which, considering the sheer levels of bizarre weather occurring that were reported in the paper, was not in the least bit out of the realm of possibility.

            “Flash floods in Manhattan, tornadoes in Los Angeles…hailstorms in Florida?! In June?!” Emma shook her head in disbelief as she set the paper down. “The news was never super fun to read before, but, I mean, now, it’s just…”

            “Insane?” Luke finished.

            “Yeah.”

            Zuri took the newspaper from the blonde and looked over it, commenting, “Y’know, I thought that things were supposed to get better after those other guys were sent out. What happened?”

            “Who knows,” Luke shrugged casually and propped his muddy feet on the bench he was sitting on, earning disapproving scowls from both Emma and Ravi. He ignored them. “They could be on their way to fight the final boss right now.”

            “Luke, this isn’t a video game.” Emma chided before continuing, “I just hope they’re okay…”

            “But what if they aren’t?” Zuri inquired.

            “Don’t put that idea in my head. I don’t want to think about it.”

            Ravi added, “From what I gathered, the ones Chiron sent on the quest were very talented and experienced fighters. They should not have too much trouble.”

            “No,” Zuri shook her head, little pig tails bouncing with the motion, “You guys don’t get it. Things are supposed to get better when someone fixes something, not worse. Besides, what if they can’t do it no matter what?”

            “What do you mean, Zuri?” Emma asked.

            “Think about it. The prophecy was meant for us, not them. What if whatever’s causing all this can’t be fixed unless it’s the people who were chosen by the prophecy who go to fix it?” The small girl could see the gears turning in her older siblings’ heads.

            Finally, Ravi stated, “That…is a surprisingly rational thought.”

            “Gee, thanks.” Zuri wasn’t sure whether she should take it as a backhanded compliment or not. Before she could ponder it, though, her brother continued.

            “However, are you insinuating that Chiron and the cabin counselors, with all of their knowledge and experience, have erroneously judged who shall go on the quest? If what you say is indeed the case, then it would be most peculiar for them to purposely not send us instead.”

            Zuri shrugged, nearly mimicking Luke. “Hey, it’s just a thought. For all we know, we could be the first demigods in history who ever got a prophecy this early in our training. We might be the first people who got one that haven’t been sent. I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but you’ve gotta admit that it’s not impossible. Besides, things aren’t looking super great up there.” Indeed, the sky _did_ appear to be slightly darker than it had been a second ago, but that easily could be passed off as one’s imagination. Still, Zuri allowed that revelation to sink in for a moment before she confessed, “…Which is why I think we should go on our own quest.”

            Emma was the first to react, naturally. “Are you crazy? Zuri, we’ve been over this!”

            “A week and some odd days do not provide ample time to gain the experience required for such a venture!” Ravi added.

            “I think we should go,” Luke said. Before Ravi or Emma could turn on him, the freckled tween explained, “Zuri’s actually got a really good point. I’ve heard some stories about other quests from my brothers and they never said anything about them taking this long or things getting worse. I think Zuri’s right about the whole prophecy thing.” Ravi opened his mouth to argue, but Luke cut him off. “And we _do_ have some practice underneath our belts. Yeah, it’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.” He shot a sly grin at his younger brother. “Plus, you have a new weapon that you can actually hit stuff with.”

            Ravi glared at the brunette, but otherwise did not argue. Zuri could tell he wasn’t truly convinced yet, though. Neither was Emma, for that matter.

            Finally, Emma ground out, “One of us could _die_ trying to do this. You guys know that, right? This is real, not some fantasy book. The thing that chased us here was trying to _kill us_ , not play tag. This isn’t a game!” The teen’s harsh tone caused Zuri and her two brothers to flinch.

            Still, Zuri retorted, “But we _have_ to go, I know it! This isn’t just me wanting to go on a quest anymore, I really think something’s happened and it can’t be fixed without us!”

            Her response only seemed to further agitate her older sister. “You think? You _think?_ You’re seriously going to go out there and run a high risk of dying just because you _think_ you need to?!”

            “Yes,” Zuri and Luke both answered simultaneously.

            “I can’t believe you guys…” Emma covered her face with her hands. Then to everyone’s surprise, Miss Perfect actually swore, uncovered her face and then groaned, “ _Fine._ But if you two morons are going, I’m coming with you. There’s no way I’m leaving either of you unattended.” The blonde glared at Luke. “ _Especially_ you.”

            “What? What did I do?”

            Ignoring the duo, Zuri turned to Ravi and asked, “Well? You in?”

            With all eyes suddenly on him, Ravi bit his lip anxiously before finally giving in and nodding.

            “Awesome!” Zuri beamed.

            “Okay, guys, so we should probably take a couple days to gather supplies and everything before leaving.” Emma said. “Oh, and we need an escape plan. A really good one, too – I’ve heard the security guard has like a gazillion eyes.”

            “Leave the escaping part to me,” Luke volunteered, grinning mischievously. “I’ll get us out in no time flat.”

            Not in the mood to dispute with _that_ face, Emma replied, “Uh, okay…” Then she turned to Zuri and Ravi. “I guess the rest of us will get supplies then. When and where will we meet back up?”

            “I think we should wait at least a couple days before leaving,” Zuri commented, “And meet up by the camp entrance in the middle of the night. That way there’s less of a chance of us getting caught.”

            “If you really want to keep us from getting caught, then we need to leave ASAP,” Luke argued, “So we need to leave tomorrow night.”

            “That only gives us one day!” Emma exclaimed.

            “Yes, Captain Obvious. We shouldn’t have that much to pack anyway. Just make an excuse to stay in the cabin, pack a bag, and go.”

            “Ugh…fine,” Emma relented. “We’ll all meet tomorrow night by the camp entrance. Does midnight sound okay?” When everyone nodded, Emma concluded, “Alright, family, let’s do this.”

            The four adoptive siblings then split up to prepare, with Zuri and Emma going off towards their cabins and Luke following Ravi to the Hecate cabin, saying, “So, bro, about that effect enhancing potion you mentioned that one time…”

* * *

 

            In the Iris cabin, Emma was comfortably nestled into her cubby while mulling over the supplies she would have to bring. Food, water, her weapon, some ambrosia, perhaps a few feminine products…Would all of that even fit into the tiny purple satchel she had managed to borrow? Jeez, scaling down was hard. She had never been good at deciding what to bring on trips, and typically ended up packing almost all of her belongings whenever she left on a vacation. Poor Bertram used to have quite the time carrying all of them down to the vehicle before Jessie came into their lives (and he could make her do it). Half the time, their nanny would just tumble to the ground and have to scramble to pick everything up so that they would all leave on time.

            …Man, she missed those times.

            Quickly clearing her head of those thoughts, Emma resumed with the task at hand and began stuffing some materials into the small bag she had found. It wasn’t much, but it was just enough to help with the hard journey she and her siblings had lying ahead. Truth to be told, Emma still didn’t know if they were doing the right thing. Gods knew they definitely weren’t doing the smart thing.

            “Hey, what are you doing?” Said a voice from behind her. Emma visibly jumped and turned around, nearly panicking when she found Cathy sticking her head in from around the curtain. The redhead caught sight of the bag before Emma could hide it, and her blue eyes widened. “Wait…are you…going somewhere?”

            Thinking fast, Emma hurriedly shushed her friend and pulled her inside her mini-room. Scanning over all the possible lies she could tell, Emma decided that none was convincing enough and sighed and promptly turned towards Cathy.

            “Okay, fine. Yes, I’m leaving camp.”

            “What?! But w-“

            “ _Shhh!_ We got a prophecy and then my idiot siblings decided they wanted to go on a quest. _Pleeeeeease_ don’t tell anyone.”

            Scratching her chin thoughtfully, Cathy replied, “Okay, I won’t tell anyone.” Emma sighed in relief. “But…on one condition.” The redhead pointed towards herself with her thumb. “I’m going with you.”

            “Oh, okay then…wait, what?”

            Cathy grinned, her eyes shining. “I said I’m coming with you. I can fight, too, you know. Besides, the more the merrier, am I right?”

            Emma sighed a very deep sigh. “Okay. We’re meeting tomorrow night by the camp entrance at midnight. Don’t get caught.”

            “Same to you,” Her friend cheerily responded as she began to leave, presumably to make preparations.

            “ _And don’t tell anyone._ ” Emma whispered just before the redhead exited. Cathy flashed a thumbs-up before sweeping out of the cubby and leaving the Iris cabin. Once she was gone, Emma groaned and laid back on her bed.

            _I can’t believe I’m actually doing this,_ the blonde thought. _And I just got my best friend involved with this stupid quest. Good going, Emma. Real smooth._

* * *

 

            All too soon, the hour of reckoning arrived, and Emma quietly got dressed before sneaking out of the Iris cabin and over to the camp entrance. Even at her slow and cautious pace, the blonde managed to reach it unseen in fewer than thirty minutes. There, by one of the pillars supporting the stone arch that they had run under to escape from a monster just two weeks previous (which seemed an eternity ago now), Emma could see Zuri’s tiny arm poke out and quickly wave her over. Conveniently, there was a large tree and bush on either side of the stone pillars that provided an excellent hiding place for them. Emma joined Zuri by sliding under the thick greenery to crouch next to her and Cathy (the blonde was thankful she had managed to tell her siblings about their extra companion for the road Luckily, they seemed pleased at the news). So far, they were the only three there.

            “ _Hey, where are Luke and Ravi?_ ” Emma whispered, fearful of being caught even with no one around.

            “ _No idea,_ ” Zuri whispered back.

            Cathy shrugged and shook her head, then adjusted the back pack strapped to her. Minutes passed, and Emma’s nerves continued to rise. Finally, a rustling was heard, and Luke sat down next to her in the underbrush.

            “ _’Sup, gals._ ” He greeted nonchalantly.

            “ _’Sup yourself. It’s almost 1 am. What took you so long?_ ” Emma replied in irritation before adding, “ _And where’s Ravi?_ ”

            Luke shrugged. “ _How should I know? I’m not his babysitter._ ” The freckled boy shifted something in his lap, and Emma finally noticed what appeared to be a large covered bucket.

            “ _What’s that?_ ” the blonde asked.

            “ _It’s our ticket out of here,_ ” the brunette replied, “ _Or, it will be if Ravi gets his scrawny butt up here. It’s missing an ingredient._ ”

            Before Emma could ask him to elaborate farther, a soft voice was calling out to them, and Zuri poked her arm out to wave him over. At last, Ravi joined the group, and all was well until Luke saw who was accompanying him and began to bristle.

            “What is _she_ doing here?!” He managed to get out before he was shh-d at from at least three people.

            “ _I ran into her on the way here and she agreed to come with us. We had to go back to get her things. Megan is very knowledgeable, Luke. We need someone like that to go with us._ ”

            Ravi’s explanation did little to improve the older boy’s mood, but since now wasn’t the time to argue, Luke swallowed his ire and muttered, “ _Whatever. Just give me the potion I told you to grab._ ” Obediently, the raven-haired boy reached into his jeans pocket and retrieved a thin, tiny bottle filled with a strangely colored fluid. He handed it to Luke, who promptly uncorked it and dumped its contents into the bucket in his lap. He gently moved the bucket in circles for a few seconds, and after a while, a swishing sound could be heard from inside. Grinning, Luke finally uncovered the bucket to reveal…a ton of little whitish squares? Or, they would have been white had they not been stained by the potion. Emma briefly leaned in closer, only for her eyes to start watering and force her to lean away.

            “ _Holy cow…are those diced_ onions _?_ ” The blonde asked.

            “ _Yup! Guy won’t know what hit him. Thanks to the enhancement potion, this’ll keep him busy for at least a few hours. Now shut up and help me climb up the tree with this thing – I need a clear shot, and I think I can hear something coming._ ” Indeed, the security guard was coming. Emma could hear him softly humming some sort of tune as he approached. Frantically, she and the other four kids struggled to hoist Luke to a branch where he would be directly above the guard and had just enough leaves to keep him out of sight. As the guard drew closer, Emma could clearly see every one of his eyes. There were at least one-hundred of them strewn all over his body. In order to avoid being seen, the thirteen-year-old began to back up, only for her to step on a twig and snap it. Immediately, all one-hundred eyes turned in her direction, and the security guard could barely get a word of surprise in before a bucketful of enchanted onions was dumped on top of him.

            “RUN! _RUN!_ ” Luke shouted as he jumped down from the branch. Ravi, Zuri, Megan and Cathy obeyed the command right away, but Emma couldn’t help but glance back at the security guard. All one-hundred of his eyes were watering profusely and he was moaning in extreme discomfort. A lake was already starting to form underneath him.

            “He’s going to flood the whole camp!” Emma called after Luke as he ran by her.

            “Worry about that later!” Luke yelled back. “Right now, just _run!_ ”

            And run they did. In less than a minute, the group had crossed through Camp Half-Blood’s protective barrier and vanished into the darkness of the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, I almost forgot! Since my Fanfiction.net account (Firewrxx) is my main one, any of my stories there will be updated first. If you want to read more of my stories (that I was too lazy to post here), then you can go there to read them. Thank you!  
> Important note: Special thanks to mistystar123 (Fanfiction.net) for helping me brainstorm ideas for this thing for the past several months. You're the best!  
> Chapter word count (not including the author's notes): 2, 862


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